Delta III abandoned?

Does anyone know if Boeing has abandoned their Delta III development? The
web site http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/...lta/flash.html
now only lists the Delta II and IV.

Given the track record of the III - out of three launches (1998, 1999, 2000)
only the last was successful - it makes sense. But the web site also has no
press release that I could find announcing that they were discontinuing the
III. It was a ridiculous idea anyway, just shortening and widening the 1st
stage of the existing (and very reliable) II.

Stephen the Red wrote:

Does anyone know if Boeing has abandoned their Delta III development?

They have.

But the web site also has no
press release that I could find announcing that they were discontinuing the
III.

Standard procedure. When a program dies a less-than-honorable death, all
records of it having existed are expunged from the PR campaigns.

--
Scott Lowther, Engineer
Remove the obvious (capitalized) anti-spam
gibberish from the reply-to e-mail address

In article ,
Stephen the Red wrote:
Does anyone know if Boeing has abandoned their Delta III development? The
web site http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/...lta/flash.html
now only lists the Delta II and IV.

It apparently was always intended that D-III would be just a transitional
step toward D-IV, and the long delays resulting from the two initial
launch failures let D-IV catch up with it, so there was little point in
pursuing D-III further... especially with the launch market collapsing and
even the Delta customers clearly unenthusiastic about D-III.

...the web site also has no press release
that I could find announcing that they were discontinuing the III.

Boeing would very much prefer that people just forget D-III entirely, so
they aren't going to call attention to it unnecessarily.

It was a ridiculous idea anyway, just shortening and widening the 1st
stage of the existing (and very reliable) II.

Don't forget the heavier strap-ons (which have since shown up on a heavy
version of the Delta II) and the fat upper stage. D-III was obviously a
slightly-kludgey intermediate step, a way of getting a new upper stage
into service without having to build an all-new lower stage at the same
time. Putting the diameter change at the intertank rather than the
interstage appears to have been driven by a combination of pad-facilities
compatibility and limiting wind loads. Larger and fancier strap-ons were
probably required just to get the heavier vehicle off the ground.

Given the decision to do a new upper stage, it wasn't an unreasonable
design... and given that a new first stage was a bigger job and McDonnell
Douglas was hoping that the EELV program would pay for that, it made sense
to do the upper stage first. The result was a bit odd-looking but not at
all ridiculous.

McDD appears to have underestimated just how much all the changes altered
the dynamic behavior of the vehicle. As it was, the first launch was
*almost* a success -- the first batch of strap-ons were starting to burn
out when they ran out of hydraulic fluid for nozzle vectoring, and a bit
more caution in the fluid allocation or a less windy launch day might have
gotten that launch past strap-on separation.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

"Stephen the Red" wrote in
m:

Does anyone know if Boeing has abandoned their Delta III development?

For all intents and purposes, yes.

Given the track record of the III - out of three launches (1998, 1999,
2000) only the last was successful - it makes sense. But the web site
also has no press release that I could find announcing that they were
discontinuing the III. It was a ridiculous idea anyway, just
shortening and widening the 1st stage of the existing (and very
reliable) II.

And adding an all-new high-energy upper stage.

What really happened is that the III got aced out by Delta IV, but
the III's upper stage went to the IV and the larger strap-ons went
to the II as the Delta II Heavy. So I wouldn't call it a waste
by any means. It was a transitional design that became redundant
a bit early before it got all the bugs worked out.

Ariane V on the other hand, still hasn't reached design maturity
where it could be considered reliable.

--Damon

"Stephen the Red" wrote

Does anyone know if Boeing has abandoned their Delta III development?


http://www.comdev.ca/pdf/IndustryArticleSep03.pdf

Report from 7th World Summit for Satellite Financing,
Paris Sept 8-12 [2003]

Wilbur Trafton, president of Boeing Launch Services, said
overcapacity among launch providers will confine the Delta IV
to military operations until about 2009 and that the
disappointing Delta III project is being killed.