Issue 3 | Volume 150 | September 18, 2018
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Farewell, Delta II Rajan Khanna News Editor The launch of ICESat 2 marked the end of an era for United Launch Alliance’s Delta II rocket. Saturday’s launch brought the rocket’s streak up to 100 successful launches. The rocket was the workhorse of ULA’s fleet, launching 156 times with only one partial failure and one total failure. NASA contracted with ULA to send many of their high priority missions aboard the Delta II, such as the Opportunity Rover and the Kepler Telescope. The rocket was extraordinarily versatile and had many configurations to fit the payload. Delta II development began as President Ronald Reagan announced that commercial payloads would not fly on the Space Shuttle anymore, in response to the Challenger disaster of 1986. The policy change opened the door to a new rocket, and McDonnell Douglas took the opportunity to launch seven Delta II’s with Air Force payloads. Early Delta II’s flew in the 6000 configuration which denoted the use of an RS-27 engine for the first stage. The Delta II 7000 version upgraded the RS-27 to the RS-27A engine which was more efficient than the predecessor. The solid rocket boosters were also upgraded to the GEM 40 SRB ’s and replaced the Castor 4A boosters. Delta III development began, but two failures in three launches stopped development of the rocket and redevelopment began to re-purpose the existing pieces into the Delta IV. The end-of-life plans for the launch vehicle came early as the Air Force Space Command began to phase out the launch support facilities of the Delta II at Cape Canaveral Air Station in 2003. The facilities were transferred to NASA to support the GRAIL launch in 2011. The final Delta II Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral took place in 2011 from SLC-17. Earlier this year, SLC-17 was demolished, marking the end of an era for the Del-
Photo Courtesy: NASA
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ta family of rockets in Cape Canaveral. The rocket formally retired with the launch of ICESat 2 from Vandenburg Air Force. Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, stated that there are not enough spare parts to build another functional Delta II, but a museum rocket will be built and housed in the Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. It will be painted in the famous shark face livery. Although the rocket had extensive capabilities, the physical size of the rocket was not very large. The Delta II stood only 125 ft tall, shorter than the Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9. The Delta II was capable of carrying up to 13,400lbs to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or up to 4,780lbs to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). It also could carry up to 2,200lbs to Heliocentric Orbit (HCO). The first stage used the RS-27A engine and burned RP-1 and LOX and produced 237,000lbft of thrust for 265 seconds. The first stage was referred to as the “Extra-Extended Long Tank Thor” as the stage was derived from the Thor Ballistic Missile. The Delta K second stage was powered by the Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ10 engine, a hypergolic engine burning dinitrogen tetroxide and Aerozine 50. It was capable of burning for 431 seconds. The engine did not retire with the rocket as it will be used as the main engine of the Orion Service Module in future NASA missions. The third stage was optional, known as the Payload Assist Module (PAM-D). The stage used the Star 48B Solid Rocket Motor if the payload required an extra kick on interplanetary missions. Although the Delta II missions have been completed, the Delta II will always leave a legacy in spaceflight. ULA’s CEO, Tory Bruno commented on the final launch, ”Historic day. Retired the shark, Delta II, and the mighty Thor...” The Avion Newspaper congratulates United Launch Alliance on almost 30 years of innovation with the Delta II and wishes the best with the future of the Delta Program.