Delta Launch Vehicle: "Americas Space Ambassador" 1990 NASA

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'This video presentation features the major satellites launched by the Delta rocket in a celebration of this dependable launch vehicle's past.'

Originally a public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_(rocket_family)

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Delta is an American versatile family of expendable launch systems that has provided space launch capability in the United States since 1960. More than 300 Delta rockets have been launched with a 95% success rate. Only the Delta IV Heavy rocket remains in use as of November 2020. Delta rockets are currently manufactured and launched by the United Launch Alliance...

The original Delta rockets used a modified version of the PGM-17 Thor, the first ballistic missile deployed by the United States Air Force (USAF), as their first stage. The Thor had been designed in the mid-1950s to reach Moscow from bases in Britain or similar allied nations, and the first wholly successful Thor launch had occurred in September 1957. Subsequent satellite and space probe flights soon followed, using a Thor first stage with several different upper stages. The fourth upper stage used on the Thor was the Thor "Delta", delta being the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. Eventually the entire Thor-Delta launch vehicle came to be called simply "Delta".

NASA intended Delta as "an interim general purpose vehicle" to be "used for communication, meteorological, and scientific satellites and lunar probes during 1960 and 1961". The plan was to replace Delta with other rocket designs when they came on-line. From this point onward, the launch vehicle family was split into civilian variants flown from Cape Canaveral which bore the Delta name and military variants flown from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) which used the more warlike Thor name. The Delta design emphasized reliability rather than performance by replacing components which had caused problems on earlier Thor flights; in particular the trouble-prone inertial guidance package made by AC Spark Plug was replaced by a radio ground guidance system, which was mounted to the second stage instead of the first. NASA made the original Delta contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company in April 1959 for 12 vehicles of this design:

Stage 1: Modified Thor IRBM with a Block I MB-3 engine producing 683 kN (154,000 lbf) thrust (LOX/RP1 turbopump, gimbal mounted engine, two verniers for roll control).

Stage 2: Modified Able. Pressure fed UDMH/nitric acid powered Aerojet AJ-10-118 engine producing 34 kN (7,600 lbf). This reliable engine cost US$4 million to build and is still flying in modified form today. Gas jet attitude control system.

Stage 3: Altair. A spin-stabilized (via a turntable on top of the Able) at 100 rpm by two solid rocket motors before separation. One ABL X-248 solid rocket motor provided 12 kN (2,700 lbf) of thrust for 28 seconds. The stage weighed 230 kg (510 lb) and was largely constructed of wound fiberglass.

These vehicles would be able to place 290 kg (640 lb) into a 240 to 370 km (150 to 230 mi) LEO or 45 kg (99 lb) into GTO. Eleven of the twelve initial Delta flights were successful and until 1968, no failures occurred in the first two minutes of launch. The high degree of success achieved by Delta stood in contrast to the endless parade of failures that dogged West Coast Thor launches. The total project development and launch cost came to US$43 million, US$3 million over budget. An order for 14 more vehicles was made before 1962...

From 1969 through 1978 (inclusive), Thor-Delta was NASA's most used launcher, with 84 launch attempts. (Scout was the second-most used vehicle with 32 launches.) Satellites for other government agencies and foreign governments were also launched on a cost-reimbursable basis, totaling sixty-three satellites. Out of the 84 launch attempts there were seven failures or partial failures, a 91.6% success rate...