Tue, Nov 09, 2010
United Launch Alliance Booster Carried COSMO-SkyMed 4 Satellite
To Orbit
For the 350th time in its 50-year program history, a Delta
rocket launched on Saturday. The 350th mission was a United Launch
Alliance Delta II rocket launching the fourth Italian-built
Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean Basin
Observation (COSMO-SkyMed 4) satellite from Space Launch Complex-2
at 1920 PDT. ULA successfully launched the first three COSMO-SkyMed
satellites on Delta II vehicles in 2007 and 2008.
The mission was procured by Boeing Launch Services and was
launched for the Italian Space Agency, the Italian Ministry of
Defence and Thales Alenia Space.
The first Delta launch took place on May 13, 1960. The
Delta II used today has demonstrated a 98.6 percent success rate
and, while ULA launches one mission at a time, COSMO-SkyMed 4 marks
the 93rd successful launch of a Delta II dating back to
1997.
"Today's (Saturday's) successful launch of the Cosmo-SkyMed-4
mission was the 350th Delta launch, which has provided an
exceptional highlight to the year-long 50th anniversary celebration
of the Delta program," said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president,
Mission Operations. "The Delta system has achieved an extremely
impressive track record of mission success over the last five
decades. This achievement was made possible by the outstanding
skills and hard work of our engineers and technicians along with
the tremendous support we receive from our government, industry,
and supplier mission partners. The ULA team is very pleased
to have successfully launched the fourth COSMO-SkyMed satellite for
Boeing, the Italian Space Agency, Ministry of Defence and Thales
Alenia Space."
The ULA Delta II 7420-10 configuration vehicle featured a ULA
first stage booster powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
RS-27A main engine and four Alliant Techsystems (ATK) strap-on
solid rocket boosters. An Aerojet AJ10-118K engine powered the
second stage. The payload was encased by a 10-foot-diameter
composite payload fairing.
COSMO-SkyMed 4 is the final satellite in the initial
constellation for this system. Each of the four satellites is
equipped with a high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar operating
in X-band. The overall objective of the program is global
Earth observation and relevant data responding to the needs of the
military and scientific community, as well as to the public demand
for environmental control.
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