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home | newest check | boards | help index | log | ps | userlogin | send sysop | slog | status forward | bcm news | users | version | remove cookieWG3K > ANS 15.04.24 10:37l 64 Lines 3361 Bytes #14 (0) @ AMSAT BID : $ANS105.7 Read: GUEST Subj: Ending an Era, Final Delta Rocket Launched This Week Path: JH4XSY<IW0QNL<VE2PKT<VE3CGR<KA1VSC<WG3K Sent: 240415/0126Z 3131@WG3K.#SMD.MD.USA.NOAM LinBPQ6.0.24 Ending an era in U.S. rocketry, United Launch Alliance fired off its 16th and final triple-core Delta 4 Heavy Tuesday, launching a classified spy satellite in the last hurrah of a storied family of rockets dating back to the dawn of the space age. The Heavy’s three hydrogen-fueled RS-68A first stage engines ignited with a rush of bright orange flame at 12:53 p.m. EDT, smoothly pushing the 235-foot-tall rocket away from pad 37 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. *The last Delta 4 Heavy rocket climbs away from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on April 9, 2024, carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite. (United Launch Alliance photo.)* The launch came 12 days late, primarily because of work to replace a pump in a system that supplies nitrogen gas to multiple launch pads from a pipeline running through the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. There were no problems Tuesday. Mounted atop the rocket was a classified satellite provided by the National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive government agency that manages the nation’s fleet of sophisticated optical and radar imaging reconnaissance satellites and electronic eavesdropping stations. In keeping with standard NRO-U.S. Space Force policy for such missions, no details about the NROL-70 payload were released. But about six hours after launch, the National Reconnaissance Office declared the launch a success, indicating the satellite reached its planned orbit.The final appearance of a Delta rocket 63 years after the first variant’s maiden flight was an emotional milestone for the managers, engineers and technicians who assembled and launched the last member of the family. The Delta family of stages and rockets had its roots in the early space program, first serving in the nation’s fleet of intermediate-range ballistic missiles and evolving through multiple versions used to put military, NASA and civilian payloads into orbit. The now-retired Delta 2 debuted in 1990, putting the first Global Positioning System satellites into orbit and sending multiple planetary probes into deep space, including Messenger to Mercury, multiple Mars orbiters, the Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, the Spitzer Space Telescope and many more. The single-core Delta 4 first flew in 2002 with the first Heavy following two years later. The single-core version flew the program’s final flight in 2019. Tuesday’s launch was the 45th flight of a Delta 4 and the 16th and final Delta 4 Heavy. “Launching the last Delta 4 is bittersweet for me,” Col. Eric Zarybnisky, director of NRO’s Office of Space Launch, said in a statement. “I was part of the team that launched the first Delta 4 for the NRO. Since that time, the Delta 4 has put amazing capability on orbit for this nation.” Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, also called the flight a “bittersweet” moment as the company continues its transition to next-generation Vulcan rockets, phasing out its more expensive Delta and Atlas families. “Soon, Vulcan will pick up that mantle and we’re going to retire this venerable rocket that has made so much important work for our country,” he said after launch in a pre-recorded video. [ANS thanks William Harwood, CBS News, for the above information]
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