PARIS -- The maiden flight of Boeing's Delta 4 rocket has been postponedby several weeks, to late October or early November, due to a potentialsoftware glitch in ground support equipment that was spotted during alaunch rehearsal, Boeing Launch Services President Will Trafton saidSept. 5.
The launch, carrying a commercial telecommunications satellite forEutelsat S.A. of Paris, had been set for Oct. 9.
Jim Simpson, vice president for marketing and sales at Boeing LaunchServices of Seal Beach, Calif., said the problem was detected during afueled rehearsal for the launch that occurred Aug. 30 on the Delta 4launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
It was the Delta 4's first so-called wet dress rehearsal, which isdesigned to simulate a launch until just before engine ignition. Simpsonsaid the rehearsal went smoothly, with all systems functioning asdesigned, until 17 seconds before the end of the countdown.
On Sept. 4, Boeing Launch Services officials, after consulting anindependent panel of experts that is advising the company on the Delta 4program, decided to postpone the launch.
"The whole idea is mission success," Trafton said. "We are not going tolaunch this rocket until we are absolutely ready."Simpson said another attempt at a dress rehearsal will occur inmid-September, to be followed by a final dress rehearsal during whichDelta 4 managers will fire the rocket's RS-68 main-stage engine for fiveseconds before shutting it down.
Delta 4 is Boeing's entry in the U.S. Air Force's Evolved ExpendableLaunch Vehicle (EELV) program, competing directly with the Atlas 5 builtby Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver. The Atlas 5 made its debutlaunch Aug. 21, successfully lofting a Eutelsat satellite.
Simpson said Boeing wants to allow about 60 days between the first andsecond Delta 4 launches. An inaugural flight in early November wouldpush the second launch, of an Air Force's Defense SatelliteCommunications System (DSCS) spacecraft, into early 2003.
The Delta 4's third flight is slated to loft the Loral Space &Communications Estrela do Sul telecommunications satellite. It iscurrently set for the first quarter of 2003.
Simpson said Boeing Launch Services, which also manages operations ofthe Sea Launch vehicle, operated from a floating platform on the equatorin the Pacific Ocean, has a total confirmed backlog of 69 satellitesthrough 2007, of which 13 are commercial satellites and 56 are for theU.S. government.
The backlog includes 10 Sea Launch launches - three this year, six in2003 and one in 2004. Also included are 23 Delta 4 launches - two in2002, four each in 2003 and 2004, and five in 2005 and four each in 2006and 2007. Two launches of the Delta 3 rocket, which is being phased out,are scheduled, one each in 2004 and 2005.
The venerable Delta 2 rocket has six launches for 2002, 10 in 2003, 12in 2004, four in 2005 and two in 2006. The Delta 2 is mainly used forNASA missions and U.S. Defense Department Global Positioning Systemsatellites, but the current vehicle manifest also includes onecommercial flight, of Canada's Radarsat 2 Earth observation satellite.
Trafton said Boeing has submitted documentation to the Air Force, at theservice's request, concerning whether two U.S. launch suppliers cansurvive given the collapse of the commercial market and the prices paidby the Air Force for Atlas 5 and Delta 4 launches.
Air Force officials say prices for EELV missions range from about $75million for the smallest vehicles to about $150 million for the largest.
Trafton and Simpson said the Delta 4 program is profitable, but onlybarely so, even if the Air Force does not agree to invest more into theprogram. Lockheed Martin officials also are asking for a U.S. governmentreview of the EELV program to consider paying more to compensate for thereduced commercial-satellite orders.
Industry sources and government officials have said the EELV providersneed about $100 million per year in Air Force sustainment funding tokeep their respective programs healthy.
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