"Thiswas a major success for us," said Gale Schluter, Boeing's vice presidentand general manager of the company's expendable launch vehicle program."We've demonstrated the Boeing commitment to our launch vehicle familyand we have demonstrated this vehicle is operational from end to end...andI believe it is a significant event in the eyes of our customers."

Boeingalready has 18 firm satellite launch contracts for the Delta 3, but today'ssuccessful launch means the company is likely to have better luck attractingnew business, especially from those companies that might have been undecidedabout whether to trust the Delta 3.

"Ithink we're back in the hunt and this gives us another opportunity to goout there and be successful," said Jay Witzling, Boeing's vice presidentand general manager of the Delta 3 program. "Everyone was watching -- whetherthey were on the fence or not."

Boeing'sDelta 3 is considered an evolutionary step from the workhorse Delta 2 rocketto the family of Delta 4 rockets, designed primarily for the Air Force'sEvolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, but with plenty of commerciallaunch opportunities as well.

Andsince some of the Delta 3 hardware is the same to be flown on the Delta4, Boeing managers say today's success also will help them sell the newerlauncher, which is targeted to fly for the first time in 2001.

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Delta3 delivers

Therocket's 36-minute mission began at 7:05 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (11:05GMT) with a spectacular liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Launchwas briefly delayed for five minutes while the launch team waited for ahydrogen pump in the upper stage to cool down to the correct temperature.

Theliftoff came nine minutes after sunrise on Florida'sSpace Coast and the low sunlight angle created an incredible visualdisplay as the booster's flaming exhaust complemented the pink horizonand blue skies.

Failureson the first two Delta 3 launches in 1998 and 1999 prompted Boeing to flytoday's demonstration mission, which has nopaying customer or live communications satellite on board.

Instead,the Delta 3 delivered a 9,500-pound (4,300-kilogram), cylinder-shaped satellitemock-up into orbit, where it is expected to remain for 15 to 20 years beforereentering Earth's atmosphere.

A view of the stripes andreflective surfaces added to the satellite mock-up Boeing launched intoorbit on a Delta 3 rocket.

Morethan just a simple block of steel and aluminum, the device was carefullyconstructed to behave exactly like a real communications satellite in termsof its weight, balance and the frequency at which it vibrates during launch,said Rick Aversen, Boeing's chief engineer for the Delta 3 program.

Andas a science bonus, the inert payload was painted with black and whitestripes and will be used as a target for ground-based optics, lasers andradar experiments operated by the U.S. Air Force and the University ofColorado.

"We'revery pleased that we have been able to support the scientific communitywith this payload and we hope that it becomes a valuable asset over timefor them to continue to use," Aversen said.

Delta'snext launch is targeted for October 17 when a Delta 2 rocket is to carryNASA's Earth Orbiter 1 land-imaging testbed satellite from Vandenberg AirForce Base in California.

Thenext launch from Cape Canaveral is expected to be NASA's Atlantis spaceshuttle on September 8.