On April 9, the Delta IV Heavy rocket was launched from the spaceport at Vandenberg base. It put an end to the history of the illustrious family of carriers.
We have already talked in detail about the history of Delta rockets. They were once the main workhorse of NASA, putting many satellites into orbit and sending a number of iconic interplanetary missions into space. But, in the end, the Delta family couldn’t compete with SpaceX. One by one, various Delta modifications began to retire. Its last representative was Delta IV Heavy.
The height of Delta IV Heavy was 72 meters, the weight (when refueled) was 733 tons. It could put 28 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit and 14 tons into geotransfer. Between 2004 and 2018, Delta IV Heavy was the most powerful operational launch vehicle on Earth.
A characteristic feature of Delta IV Heavy was that the rocket literally launched from a fireball. This was due to the fact that a few seconds before launch, hydrogen was supplied to its engines, which then rose along the outside of the rocket, mixing with air. At launch, this mixture ignited, generating a spectacular cloud of fire (the Delta IV Heavy construction was designed for its appearance).
Delta IV Heavy was mainly used to put out military cargo. Of the 16 missions, it has only two civilian flights on its account: it was used to test the Orion spacecraft, and also sent the Parker probe to the Sun. Like other rockets of the Delta IV Heavy family, it could not compete with SpaceX because of its high price. The cost of one rocket launch was $ 350 million, while the Falcon Heavy, even in a one-time configuration, costs about half times cheaper. After the Pentagon certified the Falcon Heavy for military missions, its fate was sealed.
On April 9, Delta IV Heavy went into space for the last time, putting cargo into orbit for the needs of the US National Directorate of Military Space Intelligence. It will be replaced by the Vulcan methane rocket, which has already made its first flight.
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