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A NASA satellite designed to precisely measure changes in Earth’s ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and vegetation was launched into polar orbit from California early Saturday. A Delta 2 rocket carrying ICESat-2 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 6:02 a.m. and headed over the Pacific Ocean. NASA Earth Science Division director Michael Freilich says that the mission in particular will advance knowledge of how the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contribute to sea level rise. The melt from those ice sheets alone has raised global sea level by more than 1 millimeter (0.04 inch) a year recently,...

Under beautiful clear skies, countdown preparations are underway at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex-2 for this evening's liftoff of the Delta 2 rocket carrying Italy's COSMO 3 spacecraft. The 177-foot tall mobile service tower has been retracted from the United Launch Alliance-built rocket. The gantry was used to stack the two-stage vehicle, the four strap-on solid rocket motors and the COSMO payload atop the pad's launch mount. The tower also provided the primary weather protection and worker access to the rocket during its stay at the oceanside complex on North Vandenberg. Ground teams will spend the next couple...

Date/Launch Time/Site: March 15, with a launch window of 2:09-2:23 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-17A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. If the launch slips, the next launch attempt is set for March 16, 2:05 – 2:19 a.m. EDT. View the Launch: The launch broadcast will begin approximately 20 minutes before launch. 100k, 300k

WASHINGTON--NASA intends to conduct its final Delta 2 launch around the end of the decade and then shift more of its launch traffic in that payload class to the Atlas 5 or Delta 4 launch vehicles, the U.S. space agency's chief rocket buyer said in an Aug. 8 interview. Bill Wrobel, NASA assistant associate administrator for launch services, said the decision to phase out use of the Delta 2 came down to money. Delta 2 launch prices, already on the rise, are expected to jump sharply once the U.S. Air Force abandons use of the reliable workhorse as soon as...

Boeing Delta 2 Aug. 2, 2004 2:16:11 to 2:16:23 a.m. EDT (0216:11 to 0216:23 GMT)A Boeing Delta 2 rocket is set to launch the Mercury probe MESSENGER from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

0543 GMT (1:43 a.m. EDT)--- T+plus 7 minutes, 50 seconds. SECO 1. The second stage engine has shut down as planned. The Delta 2 rocket with SIRTF has arrived in a preliminary orbit around Earth following launch tonight. The next big step comes 30 minutes from now when the rocket reignites to take the telescope to final orbit. So far, so good!