Kinda surprised no one has commented on the spaceflightnow.com article "A Rocket Resurrection?"
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1108/21nlsonramp/Details proposals to NLS onramp the "I'm not dead yet" Delta II and Orbital's up and coming Taurus II.
Actually the article seemed kind of vague. Yes, NASA has signed a contract for dozens of launches over the next decade but it also mentions that ULA has parts to assemble no more than 5 Delta IIs. I thought ULA had previously considered reopening the Delta II line and decided it would be too expensive. I don't know any reason to assume finances have gotten better since. Taurus II seems a better fit for a replacement but it's not yet flown and will be a while getting certified.
Actually the article seemed kind of vague. Yes, NASA has signed a contract for dozens of launches over the next decade but it also mentions that ULA has parts to assemble no more than 5 Delta IIs. I thought ULA had previously considered reopening the Delta II line and decided it would be too expensive. I don't know any reason to assume finances have gotten better since. Taurus II seems a better fit for a replacement but it's not yet flown and will be a while getting certified.
thought they trashed the tooling in the last move.
No tooling was trashed.
Didn't you say the other day that the tooling had been sold to Italy?
No tooling was trashed.
Didn't you say the other day that the tooling had been sold to Italy?
The second stage tanks were built in Italy. They arent restarting the whole production line, they only have the pieces for 5
Boeing would put the Delta II back in production if they thought they could make money at it.
Boeing would put the Delta II back in production if they thought they could make money at it.
Delta II is a ULA product now.....
I kinda regret the loss of the Delta-K stage because it was a storable propellent stage capable of numerous of restarts.
It seems now zero boil off technology for Centaur or ACES will now be needed for any serious BEO work.