SPACE.com -- Delta 4 Still Aiming for November Launch but Problems Persist

Boeing's new Delta 4 sits on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on July 17, 2002 in this image by Carleton Bailie.

The first Delta 4 Common Booster Core to be delivered to Cape Canaveral rolls past a Navaho missile on display at the Air Force station during June 2001.

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	Delta 4 Still Aiming for November Launch but Problems Persist By Jim Banke Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau posted: 02:00 pm ET 19 September 2002

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Preparations to launch the first Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in early November are continuing but engineers still haven't resolved a problem with the software to be used during the countdown, Boeing officials said Thursday.

The trouble cropped up during a recent practice countdown and appears to be preventing launch controllers from completing all tasks required from T-minus five minutes through the liftoff from Launch Complex 37.

"The team is still reviewing software issues that were encountered during previous tests," Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva wrote in an update provided to news media.

The most recent official launch date of Oct. 9 was bumped into early November because of this problem.

Now Boeing has reserved Nov. 3 on the Eastern Range for the launch. A blast off that day would take place at 5:34 p.m. EST (2234 GMT) in the late afternoon -- just three minutes before sunset.

Boeing plans another launch dress rehearsal before the end of September. If all goes well with that test the exercise will conclude with a very brief firing of the Delta 4's RS-68 main engine while the rocket remains safely bolted to the ground.

Meanwhile, the first spacecraft the Delta 4 is to carry -- a Eutelsat communications satellite -- arrived on Florida's Space Coast Sept. 6, and is being readied for its mission at the Astrotech commercial payload processing facility in nearby Titusville.

"In the first week of processing, the fit check, and the electrical and mechanical interfaces between the spacecraft and the launch vehicle adapter were verified, including the spacecraft's electrical ground support equipment," Villanueva said.

The satellite will remain at Astrotech until about two weeks before the targeted Nov. 3 launch, at which point it will be trucked out to the launch pad and loaded atop the new Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV).

The Delta 4 is Boeing's contribution to the U.S. Air Force's EELV program, which is designed to provide assured access to space while also driving down launch costs and increasing reliability in the launch system. Lockheed Martin's contribution, the Atlas 5, already has had one successful launch.

In other Boeing Delta news:

The common booster core first stage of the Delta 4 rocket that will fly the first official U.S. Air Force EELV mission arrived Friday, Sept. 6th at the Cape after being transported from Alabama by water aboard the Delta Mariner. Configured as a Delta 4-Medium, the rocket is to carry a spacecraft for the Air Force's Defense Satellite Communications System program.
The launch -- the second planned for the Delta 4 -- still is planned for December of this year from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station but is likely to be delayed into the new year.
Launch of the next Delta 2 with a Global Positioning System satellite from the Cape remains on hold while engineers continue inspections and reviews of the wiring harnesses used on the booster. Problems discovered in wiring bundles at the Delta factory prompted the additional checks at the launch site.
Jim Boyle is Boeing's new Delta launch operations director at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. He oversees Delta 2 work at Space Launch Complex 2, as well as Delta 4 activation work at Space Launch Complex 6 -- the former and never-used West Coast space shuttle launch pad.
NASA has awarded Rich Murphy a Public Service Medal of Honor, the highest recognition given by the space agency to non-governmental personnel. As launch director at Cape Canaveral, Murphy earned his award supporting NASA missions such as EO-1/SAC-C, Mars Odyssey, Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Genesis.