Inaugural Boeing Delta 4 Sends First Satellite Into Earth Orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Boeing's Delta 4 rocket successfully delivered its first satellite into Earth orbit on Wednesday.

Lifting off at 5:39 p.m. EST (2239 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the 20-story rocket began its mission to loft the Eutelsat W5 spacecraft into Earth orbit.

The mission, accomplished 37 minutes later, was greeted with cheers and applause by company officials who had waited seven years to launch the rocket that is their contribution to the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

"This is a new day and I think that we, Boeing, have proved a lot to the industry here tonight. Delta 4's going to be around for a long time," said Will Trafton, president of Boeing Launch Services, the company responsible for marketing the Delta family of rockets.

The apparently perfect shot represents a solid comeback for Boeing following the disastrous Delta 3 debut in 1998 that ended with pieces of the rocket scattered across the bottom of the seafloor. Boeing now has a better chance to compete in the commercial satellite launching marketplace.

"It's a big step for us to bring Delta 4 to the market and to our customers. We think that it will provide a very, very highly reliable vehicle at a very competitive cost, to a very competitive market," said Dan Collins, Boeing's Delta program manager.

Today's success - combined with the successful August launch of Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 - means the U.S. military now has two new credible ways to get its payloads into orbit -- something the Pentagon calls "assured access to space."

"We think that having two providers is a very important part of that process," said Robert Dickman, deputy to the director of the National Reconnaissance Office. A retired two-star Air Force general, Dickman is now involved in the procurement of military space hardware for the government.

At a time when space-based assets are being depended upon more than ever in the war on terrorism, affordable and responsive means to launch its communications, navigation, weather and reconnaissance spacecraft.

Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin each received $500 million from the Air Force to help develop their EELV capability. Both companies are believed to have spent at least twice that amount to make the Delta 4 and Atlas 5 happen.

"A dollar spent on assured access to get a billion dollar payload into orbit is the best insurance we can buy," Dickman said.

Boeing's initial investment included rebuilding launch complexes on both coasts, constructing a factory in Decatur, Ala., and developing the RS-68 engine. The 650,000-pound-thrust powerhouse is the first new engine for the United States since the space shuttle main engine debuted in 1981.

No less important for Boeing is its commercial customers, which for this first flight was a Eutelsat telecommunications satellite built by Alcatel-Space.

"It's a great feeling because it is a very important satellite for us," said Volker Steiner of Eutelsat.

Designed to last more than 12 years in geosynchronous orbit over Earth's equator, the high-powered satellite is to provide direct broadcast television and other communication services to its customers that stretch from Western Europe to Far East Asia.

The W5 spacecraft will be added to Eutelsat's constellation of 23 satellites that occupy 15 different orbital slots spanning the globe and now serve more than 102 million households in Europe, North Africa and the Near Middle East.

Interestingly, this particular satellite has its own checkered past as it was involved in a 1998 factory accident that made it essentially useless. Alcatel-Space fixed it up and then kept it in storage until February when Eutelsat bought it. Four months later it was delivered to Cape Canaveral.

"Within four years we have had time to repair and reconfigure the satellite and to test it successfully to Eutelsat's satisfaction," said Alcatel-Space vice president Bernard Molestei.

Eutelsat officials wouldn't disclose how much they spent on either the spacecraft or the rocket, but they did say the mission was fully insured.

Boeing officials also wouldn't comment on costs, except to acknowledge that Eutelsat received "first flight rates" on this Delta 4 mission.

Eutelsat has accepted a lot of risk this year flying new vehicles. It launched its Hot Bird 6 spacecraft on the first Atlas 5 rocket and now has lofted W5 on this Delta 4.

A launch attempt Tuesday was scrubbed when a balky liquid oxygen valve at pad 37 would not close, preventing the first stage Common Booster Core's liquid oxygen tank from pressurizing just before liftoff. Other last-minute concerns helped stretch out the countdown through most of the 70-minute window before Boeing gave up to try another day.

Final countdown preparations resumed Wednesday at lunch time as the Boeing launch team again started filling the two-stage rocket with its load of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant.

The process ended about four hours later and put an icy layer of white frost on areas of the Delta 4 rocket's skin not covered with rust-colored insulation.

Officials chose not to paint this Delta 4 the shade of blue traditionally seen during dozens of previous Delta 2 launches -- although a small token stripe was painted on the rocket.

In the meantime, armed with an optimistic weather forecast, Air Force meteorologists kept an eye on the skies all afternoon as hazy skies and the chance of rain threatened at times.

Anticipation built as the countdown clocks ticked toward zero and thousands of people gathered along the beaches and river fronts around the space center for the sunset shot.

At the air station, Boeing hosted more than a thousand VIP guests that included industry partners, current and potential satellite customers, as well as top government officials representing the Air Force and states where Boeing has a major presence.

The final launch sequence began at T-minus five minutes and included final topping off of the propellant, pressurizing the tanks and arming all of the ordnance used to launch a major rocket.

With computers controlling the final moments of the countdown, sparklers were ignited 9.5 seconds before T-zero to burn off any excess hydrogen gas near the engine nozzle.

Then at 5.5 seconds to launch, the Rocketdyne RS-68 engine roared to life, sending a burst of bright orange fire from the flame trench.

Sensing that the single main engine was burning with the proper amount of thrust, the computers ignited the pair of solid rocket motors strapped to the first stage just 20 milliseconds before liftoff.

Appearing as instantaneous events, the motors ignited, the swing arms moved away and the Delta 4 took flight for the first time, bathing the immediate area with a brilliant glow from its engine and boosters.

Jumping off its launch pad, the Delta 4 climbed away from the coast to head downrange into the night sky, picking up more and more speed with every moment as the RS-68 gulped nearly one ton of propellants every second.

A little more than 47 seconds into flight the Boeing booster was moving faster than the speed of sound, and less than one minute later its twin solid rocket motors burned out and separated to fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

Like clockwork, the remaining launch events ticked off one by one as the first stage shut down and fell away, the second stage RL-102B engine was ignited twice and the spacecraft separated 37 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff.

The Delta 4 began its historic journey into orbit from a site that already had secured its place in the history books some four decades ago.

Launch Complex 37 originally was built in 1962 to support NASA's Apollo lunar landing program. It was home to Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B rockets, which were the predecessors of the mighty Saturn 5 Moon rocket.

Eight launches took place from pad 37 between 1964 and 1968, including the first flight of an unmanned Lunar Module, a mission that has since been dubbed Apollo 5.

Operations at the complex -- which sits north of the still-abandoned pad 34, where the 1967 Apollo 1 fire took place; and south of complex 40, home of the Titan 4 -- ceased in 1971.

Designed from the start to accommodate large launch vehicles, the Air Force in 1995 identified pad 37 as the best place to fly what eventually became the Boeing EELV. Lockheed Martin's EELV, the Atlas 5, is flown from former Titan 4 complex 41, which is located a few miles north of pad 37.

The 130-acre site includes the main launch pad with its fixed and mobile service towers, as well as a 100,000-square-foot Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF). There's also room for a second pad if that should ever become necessary.

Stages of the Delta 4 are delivered by barge from Decatur, Ala., and bolted together in the HIF. Then, following a cue from the Russians, the rocket is rolled out to the pad laying on its side and a giant erector flips it up to the vertical position, after which its satellite cargo is loaded atop the booster.

Boeing's next launch of a Delta 4 rocket is expected to be early next year when it is to carry a military communications satellite into orbit from the Cape.

Five Delta 4 launches are planned altogether next year. Four from the Cape and one from Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 6, the intended West Coast launch site for NASA's space shuttle program that was abandoned in 1986 following the Challenger disaster.

Looking ahead, five launches currently are planned for 2004, six in 2005, and then five each again in 2006 and 2007, according to Boeing's latest estimate.

Of those, 22 are government launches and four are commercial. But Boeing officials are confident that with Tuesday's successful shot other commercial customers soon will sign on the dotted line.

This was a white knuckle launch for Boeing after the Delta III debacle. Congratulations to the Boeing team!

A great achievement of a great American company. Congratualtions!

I think I know how they must feel: I did the controls of the space shuttle APUs shortly before the first launch in 1979.

I had just arrived at the Raddison Oceanside, Sattelite Bch. FL for the sendoff of FL Cong. Dist.15 Congressman Dr. Dave Weldon's Deputy Chief of Staff, FL Operations, Brian Chase, who is moving to D.C. to manage The National Space Society, when they advised us all to come outside to see the bird fly.

Well done Boeing team. A "nominal" flight just doesn't seem to fit. It was beautiful!. Jim

I did the controls of the space shuttle APUs shortly before the first launch in 1979.

Cool! I am always proud to tell people that some of the DRAMs that I worked on in the early 90s are on Mars in the Mars Rover.

A great achievement of a great American company.

What makes you think that Boeing is such a great American company?

Take a look at their international business practices and who politically they support. It is no surprise that Boeing's stock has fallen, just like those that they support.

Boeing is the other Seattle monopoly.

What makes you think that Boeing is such a great American company?

I am sorry you no longer feel pride even in successes that almost uniquely American.

Take a look at their international business practices Enlighten me.

and who politically they support. Politically? Is BOeing a country.

It is no surprise that Boeing's stock has fallen, just like those that they support. This does not revela much knowledge of finance, business, or economics on your part. Boeing is the other Seattle monopoly. That's a pearl. Is "monopoly" an insult?

Boeing is slowly moving out of Washington state. The state government policies (taxes in particular) are a major reason. I'm sure Seattle will be happy to rid of all those jobs, traffic snarls and tax revenues. The factories and airfields can be turned over to the greenies to plant more trees.

Why don't you asnwer the questions already posed before you move to new ones? Your avoidance indicates irrational emotions rather than an examined position. In addition, one should not raise accusations lightly, which is what you did. It's one of the Commandments, you know. I am sure your mother told you that.

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