CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Both the new Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rockets will launch satellites for Eutelsat, a satellite telecommunications company, officials said Tuesday.
The two rockets, part of the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, are scheduled to make their first flights next year. The program's goal is to provide cheaper flights to orbit to compete with the international launch market.
"It's good business to have a real satellite" instead of a dummy payload, said Gale Schluter, vice president and general manager for Boeing's Expendable Launch Systems.
Lockheed Martin builds the Atlas 5 rocket. Boeing, which builds the Delta rockets, dedicated its Delta 4 launch complex at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday morning.
Schluter confirmed that the company had more than 50 orders for Delta 4 rockets. Some of them stretched out to 2007. Boeing also builds the smaller Delta 2 and Delta 3 rockets.
"We have plans to phase out Delta 2, but they're a long way out," Schluter said.
The first stage of the Delta 4 rocket arrived at the Cape aboard the Delta Mariner boat on Thursday.
Boeing will spend the next six months checking out mechanical and electrical connections and support equipment. Before its renovation, launch pad 37 was used to send up unmanned Saturn 1 rockets, the predecessors to the Saturn 5's that eventually carried the United States to the moon.
The dedication ceremony had several somber moments with speakers paying their respects to two workers who died while working at the pad.
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