After a long string of delays, Boeing's Delta 4 rocket made a
spaceflight comeback Wednesday during the launch of a new weather satellite
After a
long string of delays, Boeing's Delta 4 rocket made a spaceflight comeback
Wednesday during the launch
of a new weather satellite.
The Delta 4
booster roared from its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pad in Florida at
6:11 p.m. EDT (2211 GMT) Wednesday on a mission to orbit the GOES-N
weather satellite, the first in a series of advanced Earth observation
posts. The successful space shot capped a year of delays for the mission due to
technical problems and Boeing’s worker strike
last year.
Wednesday’s
launch marked the first Delta 4 flight in 18 months for Boeing. The last
vehicle in the rocket family to fly was the Boeing’s first Delta 4-Heavy – a heavy-lift
booster that made a flawless
launch only to suffer a fuel
sensor problem during flight. The glitch led to the loss of two small satellites
and a mock payload during the demonstration flight.
GOES-N –
short for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-N – launched under a partnership between NASA and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Slated to initially serve as a spare, the
advanced satellite’s $481 mission will hopefully provide a data boon for weather
forecasters and hurricane researchers.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Boeing/C. Bailie.
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