More than five years in the making and based on four decades of rocketry, Boeing intends the new family of Delta 4 boosters to become a showcase for 21st century launch operations.
"It has been a labor of love and I am very, very excited about getting to Tuesday and watching our baby fly," said Dan Collins, Boeing's Delta program manager.
Flying atop the 20-story, two-stage booster will be a Eutelsat satellite.
Built by Alcatel Space, the W5 spacecraft is designed to provide direct broadcast TV and other communications services to customers in Europe and Asia.
It will take 37 minutes from liftoff to spacecraft separation -- a tense period of time for everyone associated with Boeing's contribution to the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
"I don't know how long you have to hold your breath, but there's no such thing as an easy launch," said Robert Dickman, a retired two-star Air Force general who now serves as a deputy to the director of the National Reconnaissance Office and is a key figure in the procurement of military space hardware.
The EELV program -- including both the Delta 4 and Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5, which successfully flew in August -- is critical to the Pentagon's future ability to loft payloads into orbit.
"You would be hard pressed to find a program we'd said was more important," Dickman told SPACE.com. "Unless we can get the satellites to space reliably -- on schedule and within reasonable cost -- all the satellites in the world don't do you any good."
The Air Force invested $500 million in the Delta 4 program as a partner with Boeing, which likely spent more than a billion dollars of its own money to develop the rocket, build a new factory in Alabama and remodel launch pads on both coasts. Officials wouldn't say how much they have spent.
The payoff for Boeing is to come from booking commercial launches like this inaugural mission for Eutelsat -- although officials acknowledge this flight was sold using "first flight" rates.
While government launches are expected to dominate the Delta 4 manifest for the next few years -- 22 flights have been reserved so far -- commercial launches are eagerly anticipated, Boeing officials said.
"I anticipate with a successful launch we'll see increased commercial business for Delta 4," said Will Trafton, president of Boeing Launch Services, which markets the Delta and Sea Launch rockets. "We have positioned ourselves to be competitive and we intend to take our share of the market."
Part of the drama of today's launch comes from the fact that the last time Boeing introduced a new rocket -- namely the Delta 3 -- the mission ended with a colorful explosion in the night sky over the Cape. The second Delta 3 also ended in disaster and the third Delta 3 flew a dummy payload into a marginally successful orbit.
Given the amount of pre-flight testing and engineering done on this vehicle, Boeing managers said they are extremely confident this Delta 4 will be a success and will remain committed to the Delta 4 program no matter what happens on the maiden flight.
"Boeing is in the launch business for the long haul," Trafton said. "We do not base the success of this business on one launch, or two launches or three launches."
advertisement
