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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 0041.PDF
UP FOR DELTA II i i [USAF] •*4 E 1 L 1 I 1 A 1 £j I McDonnell Douglas has streamlined its booster and payload processing to handle 12 Delta launches a year from Pad 17, as Tim Furniss reports from Cape Canaveral. I • H -rr-a smiflBr-j"!!, » IS^^MLI x^pjlfi Five years ago the McDonnell Douglas Delta launch-vehicle programme was coming to an end, after an illustrious career which began in 1960. The Space Shuttle was taking over all the US launch business and the Delta and other expendable launch vehicles were re dundant. Today, the aftermath of the Chal lenger disaster in 1986 and the decision to commercialise the US launch vehicle indus try, have resulted in a renaissance for ex pendable launch vehicles. The Delta pro gramme is once again vibrant and building up to 12 launches a year from Cape Canaver al. To handle this launch rate, McDonnell Douglas (MDC) has recently made several improvements to launch vehicle and payload processing. "We went through a lot of growing pains," says Lyle Holloway, MDC director of launch operations at Cape Canaveral. "We had a production line that had been down for five •years. We had to bring it back to action again which meant a whole new re-education and training programme for the people." The major plus for MDC was: "We kept an active launch team throughout the quiet period." There were still a few Deltas left to launch from Cape Canaveral pads 17A and 17B for NASA, even when the Shuttle was
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