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Delta 4 Lofts Final DSCS Satellite to Orbit for Military
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 09:00 pm ET
29 August 2003
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A military communications satellite that is the last in its series was successfully launched into orbit Friday. A Boeing Delta 4 rocket, part of the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, carried the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS 3-B6) spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's complex 37 was at 7:13 p.m. EDT (2313 GMT). A Thursday launch attempt was called off due to stormy weather that had cleared in time for Friday's shot. The two-story, liquid-fueled rocket belched a still-alarming amount of fire from its first stage RS-68 main engine but mission commentators said all was well as the 20-story climbed out over the Atlantic Ocean. The launch "was nominal. It was actually better than nominal," said Air Force Col. Susan Mashiko, EELV program director. Rocketcams offered live evidence that spacecraft separation took place as planned some 42 minutes after launch. "It was a fantastic launch," said Christine Anderson, Air Force system program director for MILSATCOM, which manages the DSCS program. "Thanks to Boeing for a great ride." The Delta 4 flown Friday was the third so far in the series and, obviously, not one of the 10 EELV missions the Air Force took away from Boeing in July for illegally possessing information about competitor Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 program.The $200 million satellite orbited by the Delta 4 joins 13 others in a constellation of spacecraft that provides a way for military managers to stay in touch with troops around the world. "This is the backbone of the DOD global satellite communications systems," said Maj. Dave Martinson, chief of MILSATCOM operations for Air Force Space Command at Colorado Springs, Colo. "We provide nuclear-hardened, anti-jam, high capacity, long haul communications." Built by Lockheed Martin, this DSCS will be located over the western Atlantic and become one of the 12 operational satellites. Two others already in orbit serve as backups. This particular satellite originally was intended to be launched by NASA's space shuttle. But following the 1986 Challenger disaster, the DSCS spacecraft were re-manifested to fly on expendable vehicles. The DSCS constellation will be replaced beginning in early 2005 with a more versatile communication system known as the Wideband Gap Filler.
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