Despite a series of delays,
Boeing's newest rocket shot into space today carrying two small
satellites and a large mock payload during a test mission for the U.S. Air
Force.
The 23-story Delta
4 Heavy rocket, a heavy-lift variant of the Delta 4 family, lifted off
from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
at 4:50 p.m. (2150
GMT). The flight had been delayed three times this month due to weather and
technical glitches.
"This is a great Christmas present,"
said Jim Harvey, a Delta 4 program manager with Boeing, just after the launch.
"Nobody is going to be disappointed in seeing this."
About four minutes into the
flight, the Delta 4 Heavy's two strap-on boosters fell away from the
rocket's central core and about two minutes later the first stage shut down
for good and separated from the launch vehicle. The rocket's second stage
performed two of three planned burns flawlessly, then entered a five-hour coast
phase to deliver its test payload DemoSat into orbit.
DemoSat, an instrumented
payload whose sole job is to test vibrations and other Delta 4 Heavy flight
phenomena during launch, is expected enter geosynchronous orbit at about 10:30
p.m. EST (0330 Dec. 22 GMT).
Two nanosatellites - dubbed
Nanosat 2 - were expected to separate from DemoSat, to which they had clung
like barnacles during ascent, about 16 minutes into the flight, though
confirmation of that separation was not immediately available. Built by
university researchers and students, the nanosatellites are designed to take
digital imagery of cloud formations and test the effectiveness of commercial
materials in spacecraft.
"[This launch] is very
important to us," Dan Collins, vice president of expendable launch systems for
Boeing, told SPACE.com in a prelaunch
interview, adding that thorough testing of the rocket over the last year has
prepared the launch team for today's liftoff. "The launch team really got to
know the rocket and the way we go about this."
A few glitches dogged
today's launch but engineers were able address them within the flight's launch
window, which stretched from 2:36 p.m. to 5:32 p.m. EST (1936-2232
GMT).
Boeing developed the Delta
4 Heavy rocket as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)
program run by the U.S. Air Force, which paid at least $140 million
for the demonstration space shot, according to the FAA.
A more powerful
rocket
The powerhouse behind
Boeing's Delta 4 Heavy is its combination of three common booster cores, two of
which were jettisoned during ascent. The added engines allow the
rocket to launch 50,800 pounds (23.040 kilograms) of payload into low Earth
orbit and 28,950 pounds (13,130 kilograms) to geosynchronous orbits, which
is twice as much cargo that the standard single-core versions.
"It's a major milestone as
we bring online these evolved expendable launch vehicles," said Col. Marc Owen,
commander of the 45th Space Wing at the Air Force Station, of the heavy-lift
rocket during a prelaunch telephone interview. "And it promises to make
spaceflight less costly for the U.S. Air Force and the country at
large."
Today's
successful launch paves the way for two future missions for the U.S. Air
Force, which has tapped the Delta 4 Heavy to launch a Defense Launch
Support satellite for missile-detection and classified payload for the National
Reconnaissance Office.
"This particular flight
will demonstrate the readiness of Delta 4 Heavy to deploy large payloads into
orbit," Owen said. "That large payload makes a pressing case in space for the
Air Force."
NASA and beyond
Collins said that while the
Air Force is Boeing's current customer for its heavy-lift booster, it could
serve as the launch vehicle for NASA's future science and exploration
missions, particularly those requiring the delivery of multiple
payloads..
"Exploration does have a
number of components, including human, robotic and cargo components," said Karen
Poniatowski, NASA's deputy associate administrator for launch
services in the Space Operations office at
the agency's Washington, D.C. headquarters. "So expendable launch vehicles will
clearly play roles."
Lockheed Martin is also
developing a heavy-lift rocket, a variant of its the Atlas
5
developed under the EELV program. NASA officials will closely
monitor the performance of both rockets as launch vehicle considerations in
future missions.
"We look at them
comparatively to determine what capabilities are being afforded the nation so we
understand what we might need," Poniatowski told SPACE.com. "And it's not just Atlas or
Delta, there are many emerging launch companies to consider so it isn't one size
fits all."
While today's launch marked
the first flight of the Delta 4 Heavy, it is the fourth liftoff for Boeing's
Delta 4 family since its debut in 2002. All three previous flights were medium
versions of the Delta 4 equipped with a single common booster core.
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