Delta IV faces Cape Canaveral launch pad trials

The first production Boeing Delta IV common booster core (CBC) has arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for validation tests on the refurbished launch pad 37.

The launch pad was originally used for the first series of Saturn 1 and 1B unmanned test flights from October 1961. The CBC's move to Florida follows a series of hot fire tests at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Mississippi.

The Decatur, Alabama-built CBC will be used for "mechanical pathfinder activities, to prove out processing operations" at the new Delta IV pad, prior to the arrival of the first flight CBC in August, says Boeing.

The maiden flight of the US Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) is now scheduled for March 2002.

Meanwhile, the first stage of Lockheed Martin's new Atlas V EELV was due to arrive at the Cape on 6 June in preparation for its first launch in next May.

Source: Flight International