Update: Final Delta IV Heavy launched from the Cape.
The Delta IV Heavy rocket made its final flight this afternoon from the Cape. The Heavy is basically three ULA Delta IV rockets bolted together to create a super-lift vehicle. The customer for today’s secretive mission was the National Reconnaissance Office. The Delta rocket family has had 388 launches over a period of 60 years.
The NRO has utilized Delta IV Heavy rockets a dozen times for its high-priority, national security-focused missions.
Since its first launch in 1960, the Delta family of rockets enabled the original Global Positioning Systems (GPS), launched a handful of scientific experiments and sent eight NASA payloads to Mars.
A Delta IV Heavy rocket launched NASA’s Exploration Flight Test-1, carrying an uncrewed Orion space capsule. The December 2014 flight was a critical test of the design of the Orion spacecraft, developed to carry astronauts to deep space on a mission to the moon. The mission tested critical systems of the vehicle during its 3,600 mile high orbit, including the heat shield. An iteration of the spacecraft is slated to take four astronauts on a trip around the moon next year.
ULA is replacing the Delta program, along with its Atlas rockets, with its newest rocket design Vulcan, which made its maiden voyage in January.
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