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  BY JUSTIN RAY Follow the countdown and first California launch of Boeing's Delta 4 rocket. Reload this page for the very latest on the mission.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005 The time needed to understand the situation will bump this launch out of Vandenberg's rocket lineup for the next month or more. Officials are devising plans to remove the classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite from atop the Delta 4 rocket's Space Launch Complex-6 pad and place it in safe storage. The pad is located on the southern edge of Vandenberg, while a few miles to the north is the Space Launch Complex-4 where a massive Titan 4 rocket stands ready to loft another NRO cargo on October 19, sometime between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT (12-4 p.m. EDT; 1600-2000 GMT). Overflight concerns dictate that the costly Delta 4 payload be hauled off the rocket before the Titan 4 can thunder overhead on its southerly course to orbit. Read our full story.
1545 GMT (11:45 a.m. EDT)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2005 Liftoff was supposed to happen Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base. However, officials called a scrub earlier today. A new launch date hasn't been established. "The launch team identified a potential concern involving predictions of propellant sloshing during the coast phase of the launch vehicle's second stage," Boeing said in a statement. After separating from the Delta 4's first stage, the second stage performs a 10-minute firing of its RL10 engine to reach an initial parking orbit around Earth that is egg-shaped and stretches from 104 nautical miles at its lowest point to 1,196 miles at its highest. The stage and the attached payload enter the 25-minute coast phase of flight, flying southward over the Pacific and skirting the southern tip of South America to reach the orbit's high point. The stage is placed in a slow rolling motion to keep thermal heating evenly distributed across the vehicle during the coast. The second stage re-ignites at about T+plus 40 minutes above the South Atlantic to accelerate into a highly elliptical orbit of 601 by 20,308 nautical miles for deployment of the satellite. A detailed timeline of the launch is available here and a map of the ground track is posted here. The sloshing concern stems from differences in launch models produced by Boeing and independent organizations, officials said. A "precautionary" technical review of the situation to resolve the differing models is being conducted before the launch can proceed.
1951 GMT (3:51 p.m. EDT)
1730 GMT (1:30 p.m. EDT) The latest report from the weather team indicates a worse forecast than the one issued yesterday. There is now a 70 percent chance of winds violating the Delta 4 rocket's wind rules. "A building ridge to the west will prevent any upper-level disturbances from impacting Vandenberg in the next few days. At the surface, winds are influenced by daily heating and the sea/land breeze effect, resulting in northerly flow from 15-20 kts at T-0. Early in the count, winds will hover around limits for propellant load, between 12-16 kts from the northeast," forecasters said today. The launch time forecast calls for clear skies, visibility of 7 miles, a temperature between 75 and 80 degrees, ground winds of 15-to-20 knots from the north between 340 and 030 degrees and maximum high-altitude winds of 60 knots at 45,000 feet from the west. Thursday does not appear to be a viable launch opportunity. So if liftoff does not occur tomorrow, the next shot will come Friday when there is a 60 percent chance of unacceptable winds. "The ridge moves eastward with dry air firmly in place overhead. At SLC-6, winds remain 15-20 kts," forecasters said of Friday's expected conditions. "Predominately clear skies across the Central Coast with no precipitation or solar impacts. The marine layer re-establishes itself by Friday, dissipating by mid morning. Winds in the upper-levels increase to 65 knots at 45,000 feet from the west."
MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2005 Gusty winds at Vandenberg continue to worry weather forecasters. There is a 60 percent chance conditions will violate the weather rules on Wednesday. "A building ridge to the west will prevent any upper-level disturbances from impacting Vandenberg in the next few days. At the surface, winds are influenced by daily heating and the sea/land breeze effect, resulting in northerly flow from 15-20 knots at T-0," the launch weather team said today. The forecast calls for clear skies, visibility of 7 miles, a temperature between 75 and 80 degrees, ground winds of 15-to-20 knots from the north between 340 and 030 degrees and maximum high-altitude winds of 60 knots at 45,000 feet from the west.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2005 "The launch team is performing additional testing to the cork-bonded insulation on the composite thermal shield structure located at the base of the rocket. The cork protects the composite thermal shield from hot gases generated by the rocket's main engine during flight," a Boeing press statement read. Engineers had to perform repairs on the cork material a couple of days ago. Wednesday's launch date is pending official confirmation.
1710 GMT (1:10 p.m. EDT)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2005 "Recent model runs show a surface front passing over Vandenberg late Sunday evening, strengthening winds across the base. The upper-level trough associated with this system has slowed, depicting passage early Monday afternoon. Behind this trough the surface gradient has tightened significantly since yesterday's model and warning level winds are forecasted across the base," the launch weather team said today. The forecast calls for clear skies, visibility of 7 miles, a temperature between 68 and 73 degrees, ground winds of 17-to-22 knots, gusting to 35 knots (5 higher than earlier forecasts), from the north between 340 and 030 degrees and maximum high-altitude winds of 70 knots at 45,000 feet from the west-northwest. Tuesday's forecast is slightly better with a 70 percent chance of unacceptable winds. "The trough continues to move further east and extremely dry air builds aloft. At SLC-6, winds decrease to 15-20 knots. Skies remain clear overhead with no precipitation or solar impacts for launch. Winds in the upper-levels also decrease to 55 knots at 45,000 feet from the west-northwest," today's forecast said.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2005
2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT) "The launch team is taking additional time to replace a cork panel with suspect bonding on the thermal shield located at the base of the rocket. The cork protects the composite thermal shield from hot gases generated by the rocket's main engine," Boeing said in a statement issued a short time ago. A new launch date will be established after the repair work is completed, the company said. The rocket will carry a classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
1600 GMT (12:00 p.m. EDT) "After trough passage early Monday morning the surface gradient tightens and warning level winds are forecasted across the base," the launch weather team said today. The forecast calls for clear skies, visibility of 7 miles, a temperature between 68 and 73 degrees, ground winds of 17-to-22 knots, gusting to 30 knots, from the north between 340 and 030 degrees and maximum high-altitude winds of 70 knots at 45,000 feet. Should the launch be delayed to Tuesday, the forecast is 70 percent "no go" due to winds. "The trough moves further to the east and extremely dry air moves in aloft. At SLC-6, winds decrease slightly to 15-20 knots. Skies remain clear overhead with no precipitation or solar impacts for launch. Winds in the upper-levels also decrease to 60 knots at 45,000 feet from the west-northwest," the launch weather team reported.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005 The Air Force-controlled Range is needed to provide tracking, communications and safety services for the launch. However, the vast network is supporting an undisclosed military test and won't be available for the Delta this weekend. Boeing is rescheduling the target launch date for no earlier than Monday, pending acceptable weather conditions. Meteorologists say there is a 90 percent chance high winds will violate weather rules on Monday. Engineers have put to rest a possible technical issue with an actuator on the rocket's main engine, Boeing said.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005 Conceived in the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to field new American rockets to carry government payloads for the next two decades, the Delta 4 has flown four times in its medium- and heavy-lift configurations from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Now, the maiden mission from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base is poised for launch no earlier than Sunday afternoon. "We committed back in 1998 to bring really everything that the government needed -- full family (of rockets) from the Medium through the Heavy and both coasts," said Dan Collins, vice president of Boeing Expendable Launch Systems. "There is a lot of pride in getting to this point -- finishing up and demonstrating the whole breadth of the Delta 4 family." The Vandenberg launch site allows rockets to fly southward for delivery of spacecraft into orbit around Earth's poles, allowing coverage over most of the planet's surface. Such a route is geographically impossible from Cape Canaveral. The earlier Delta 4 launches from the Cape have flown eastward to reach equatorial orbits. Sunday's launch has been in the works for years. The rocket itself was erected atop the launch pad on October 30, 2003, but delays with the payload have kept the booster earthbound. That payload is a classified spacecraft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive government agency responsible for operating the nation's network of spy satellites. Liftoff will happen sometime between 3 and 5 p.m. PDT (6-8 p.m. EDT; 2200-0000 GMT) on Sunday. The actual target launch time has not been revealed. Officials were spending Wednesday working through a possible technical concern with an actuator unit on the rocket's main engine and scheduling conflicts with the Western Range. "The Western Range is doing a great job of coordinating the launch date with some other users of the Range," Collins said. "That is one issue we're working. And we're also working with the technical community with an actuator issue that popped out of our latest testing. Everybody is chewing on that and we're making sure that everybody across the board is comfortable with the actuator." If Sunday's launch opportunity is approved, weather conditions could pose a problem. Forecasters are predicting a 70 percent chance of violating the weather rules due to strong winds. "Vandenberg is on the front side of an upper-level trough, leading to a tightened gradient at the surface with winds 15-20 knots. Skies remain mostly clear throughout the period, with thin cirrus aloft. Precipitation associated with the trough remains well to the north, and solar activity is minimal," the launch weather team says. Sunday's outlook calls for high cirrus clouds at 28,000 feet, visibility of 7 miles, a temperature between 68 and 73 degrees, ground winds of 15-to-20 knots from the north between 340 and 030 degrees and maximum high-altitude winds of 65 knots at 45,000 feet. Should the launch be delayed to Monday for some reason, the forecast is even worse with a 90 percent chance of unacceptable conditions. "After trough passage early Monday morning the surface gradient tightens and warning level winds are forecasted across the base. At SLC-6, winds increase to between 17-22 knots, gusting to 30 knots in the afternoon. Expect clear skies over the pad with no precipitation or solar impacts for launch. Winds in the upper-levels increase to 70 knots at 45,000 feet and remain west-northwesterly," the launch weather team reported. The California home of Delta 4 is commonly referred to as "Slick Six" -- the infamous Space Launch Complex-6 that has a star-crossed legacy. It was constructed in the 1960s for the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory space station project and then rebuilt in the 1980s for military space shuttle launches. However, both projects were cancelled before any liftoffs occurred, leaving the massive pad in mothball status. In the 1990s, Lockheed Martin's tiny Athena booster flew a couple of launches from the pad. The first failed, the second mission's payload malfunctioned soon after launch, the third failed, but the final achieved complete success. Boeing moved into the complex in early 2000, beginning renovations to transform the existing shuttle facilities to support the Delta 4, including the installation of a large erector arm to hoist the assembled rockets upright, modifications to the service tower, stripping the umbilical tower to add swing arms and building the Horizontal Integration Facility nearby. Delta leaders picked Slick Six because the pad was designed from the start to launch large rockets, enabling much of its infrastructure to be reused. "I would say the main driving reason was that we were going to do a modification rather than a build from scratch. That has a lot of advantages to it. I am very, very pleased with how the modifications, the construction phase and activation phase have gone at Vandenberg," Collins said. "We specifically set up a program to take the lessons learned from our activation of SLC-37 on the East Coast, evaluate what had gone well on the East Coast and what we felt we could improve on. That program played a huge role in letting us have a very smooth activation here on the West Coast." Although Slick Six does not have all of the hardware in place to launch a Delta 4-Heavy -- the triple-body rocket that debuted from Florida last December -- Boeing officials say the pad can be upgraded quickly to support. "We have designed Vandenberg to launch the Heavy. We have done all of the scarring and we've bought all of the hardware. We chose not to install the outboard tail service masts, which are the umbilical assemblies at the bottom of the rocket just because we wanted to keep them in a more protected situation. Without a current demand for the Heavy, we didn't want to install them and have them subjected to the elements just day-to-day as well as the different launch campaigns," Collins explained. "When a need for a Heavy on the West Coast comes, we've got a plan in place that will install those tail service masts and we'll be fully ready within a matter of months to launch the Heavy." The Air Force has ordered a couple of Delta 4 launches from Slick Six. The Delta 4-Medium rocket that will fly the second mission sometime early next year -- to loft a polar-orbiting military weather satellite -- is in storage at the base. But when the first West Coast launch comes to pass this weekend, it will mark a transition for the Delta 4 team. "It may sound strange but it is a little bittersweet because we are getting to the end of the development of Delta 4. It is really the last non-recurring activity we have was to finish up the West Coast, so there is a lot of pride in bringing this to a conclusion. But it has really been a great run," Collins said. "You know, I think the development of Delta 4 is already starting to look like the good old days and we're starting to look back on it fondly because we have accomplished a lot."
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Boeing's Delta 4 rocket pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base was renovated in recent years, transforming Space Launch Complex-6 from the West Coast space shuttle launch site into a facility for the next-generation unmanned booster. This collection of footage shows the 1985 launch pad test using NASA's orbiter Enterprise.
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft safely launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Friday night with the International Space Station's twelfth resident crew and a paying tourist aboard.
The seven astronauts of space shuttle Discovery's return to flight mission recently gathered for a public celebration of their mission. They narrated an entertaining movie of highlights and personal footage taken during the mission.
The Boeing Delta 2 rocket roars off Cape Canaveral's launch pad 17A carrying the first modernized Global Positioning System satellite for the U.S. Air Force.
NASA unveils the agency's blueprint for building the future spacecraft and launch vehicles needed for mankind's return to the lunar surface in the next decade.
Astronomers announce the detection by NASA's Swift satellite of the most distant explosion yet, a gamma-ray burst from the edge of the visible universe, during this media teleconference held Monday, September 12. (54min 01sec file)
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has reached the summit of Husband Hill, returning a spectacular panorama from the hilltop in the vast Gusev Crater. Scientists held a news conference Sept. 1 to reveal the panorama and give an update on the twin rover mission.
To gain a new perspective on space shuttle Discovery's ascent and gather additional imagery for the return to flight mission, NASA dispatched a pair of high-flying WB-57 aircraft equipped with sharp video cameras in their noses.
When space shuttle Discovery launched its two solid-fuel booster rockets were equipped with video cameras, providing dazzling footage of separation from the external fuel tank, their free fall and splashdown in the sea.
