Final USAF Delta II Lifts Off August 17

The final Delta II launch for the U.S. Air Force sent a Global Positioning System (GPS) spacecraft toward its orbit early Aug. 17, capping a 48-mission series of flights with the Boeing-developed rocket. Liftoff came at 6:35 a.m. EDT from launch complex 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The new satellite was the eighth and last spacecraft in the GPS IIR-M series built by Lockheed Martin Navigation Systems. With completion of the mission, the U.S. Air Force will no longer use the Delta II for its missions, although United Launch Alliance (ULA) will continue to fly them for NASA and commercial customers. Future USAF missions will fly on ULA Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. For more details, click here.

This article is part of Space Watch: September 2009 (Volume: 8, Issue: 9).