Air Force, Boeing determine Delta 4 fix
Posted: Sat, Apr 9, 2005, 12:42 PM ET (1642 GMT)
The Air Force and Boeing announced Friday that they have closed their investigation into a problem with the inaugural launch of the Delta 4 Heavy late last year and determined a solution that should not delay the next launch of the vehicle. As reported earlier, investigators concluded that cavitation in the liquid oxygen propellant line created bubbles that caused a sensor to erroneously conclude that the engine had run out of liquid oxygen, shutting it down prematurely. That shutdown stranded the test payload on the vehicle into an orbit thousands of kilometers lower than planned. Boeing has agreed to make a number of hardware and software fixes to the vehicle to prevent the problem from reoccurring. The fixes will be implemented on all Delta 4 vehicles, not just the heavy variant, although they will not be incorporated on the Medium-Plus version scheduled to launch a weather satellite early next month. The next Delta 4 Heavy, carrying the last DSP missile warning satellite, is scheduled for launch in late October.
The Air Force and Boeing announced Friday that they have closed their investigation into a problem with the inaugural launch of the Delta 4 Heavy late last year and determined a solution that should not delay the next launch of the vehicle. As reported earlier, investigators concluded that cavitation in the liquid oxygen propellant line created bubbles that caused a sensor to erroneously conclude that the engine had run out of liquid oxygen, shutting it down prematurely. That shutdown stranded the test payload on the vehicle into an orbit thousands of kilometers lower than planned. Boeing has agreed to make a number of hardware and software fixes to the vehicle to prevent the problem from reoccurring. The fixes will be implemented on all Delta 4 vehicles, not just the heavy variant, although they will not be incorporated on the Medium-Plus version scheduled to launch a weather satellite early next month. The next Delta 4 Heavy, carrying the last DSP missile warning satellite, is scheduled for launch in late October.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Apex becomes billion-dollar company with $200 million Series D round
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:09 AM ET (0809 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Monday, September 15
Elon Musk's Starlink reports service outage, thousands of users affected
Reuters — 1:23 am ET (0523 GMT) What does the loss of U.S. Space Command mean to Colorado Springs?
Denver Post — 1:21 am ET (0521 GMT) SpaceX Launches Northrop Grumman Cargo Ship To ISS
Aviation Week — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT) SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sunday
WESH-TV Orlando — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT) Apollo 13 made Jim Lovell a legend generations after the space race
The Hill — 1:09 am ET (0509 GMT) |
