Boeing Launch Services plans to launch six Delta IV boosters before the end of 2003, including a demonstration flight of the Delta IV Heavy in about April 2003.
The addition of the Delta IV Heavy will provide Boeing with a fleet of eight boosters, including the Russian Zenit Sea Launch, offering launches of payloads weighing between 1,000-13,000kg (2,200-28,600lb).
There must be some doubt, however, about the inclusion in the schedule of the Delta III, which has had an unsuccessful test phase and can be replaced by a smaller model in the Delta IV range.
Wilbur Trafton, the president of BSL, says that Sea Launch, a partnership of Boeing, RSC Energia, SDOYuhnoye/PO Yuzhmash and Kvaerner, will fly eight commercial missions from the Odyssey offshore platform to the end of 2003, following seven successful launches.
The Sea Launch, which takes off from the equator, has proved the advantage of its delivery to equatorial geostationary transfer orbit, with a 6,000kg payload, says Trafton.
The full manifest of BSL launches to the end of this year numbers nine, not including three Delta IIs so far launched this year.
Deployments
The Delta II has been the Boeing workhorse since 1989, with a 98% success rate, in one period featuring five launches with 17 satellite deployments in 68 days.
There are five Delta II launches in 2002, three of Global Positioning Satellites and two NASA science payloads, the maiden flight of the Delta IV Medium in October, two Sea Launch and one Delta IV Medium carrying a US Air Force DSCS satellite.
Eighteen BSL launches are planned for 2004, 10 in 2005, six in 2006 and so far four in 2007, 18 by the Delta II, two planned by the Delta III, 23 by the Delta IV and just one Sea Launch, in 2004.
Source: Flight Daily News
