Boeing to reintroduce Delta 4 on commercial market

In an unexpected move, a Boeing executive said Wednesday that company plans to reintroduce its Delta 4 vehicle on the commercial market later this year, two years after the company withdrew the vehicle because of weak demand. Dan Collins, vice president of expendable launch systems at Boeing, said during a session of the Satellite 2005 conference in Washington DC that the company would reintroduce the vehicle on the commercial market by the end of the year.

Boeing, which originally hoped to attract significant demand for the vehicle commercially when the launch market was much more active, decided in mid-2003 to no longer actively sell the vehicle to commercial customers, citing the high cost of the vehicle and limited overall commercial demand. Collins did not specify how Boeing would integrate its marketing efforts for the vehicle with that for the Zenit 3SL, a large launch vehicle operated by the multinational Sea Launch venture but marketed commercially by Boeing.

Collins also said he did not know if the Delta 4 would join the Launch Services Alliance, a group that includes Sea Launch, Arianespance, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; the alliance offers mutual backup arrangements for each company's customers.

Delta IV Vehicle Description

The Delta IV family blends new and mature technology to launch virtually any size medium or heavy payload into space, with the largest success being the now flight proven RS-68 engine. The Delta IV is composed of five vehicle configurations based on a common booster core (CBC) first stage powered by the RS-68 engine. Delta IV second stages are derived from the Delta III second stage, using the same RL10B-2 engine, but with two sizes of expanded fuel and oxidizer tanks, depending on the model.

In designing the five Delta IV configurations, Boeing conducted extensive discussions with government and commercial customers concerning their present and future launch requirements. Proven technical features and processes were carried over from earlier Delta vehicles to Delta IV. New technologies and processes were incorporated where they added capability or reduced cost.

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/delta/delta4/delta4.htm

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