This Week in Launch: Get ready to say farewell to the Delta IV

The Original Big Orange Rocket, ULA‘s Delta IV Heavy, is set to have its final mission as soon as this week if weather holds. Along side ULA’s second launch of the year, SpaceX has four missions scheduled with Chinese and Russian rockets launching to give us a launch every day except Sunday.

This Week’s Launches

• March 25 (Monday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-46 | 5:00 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• March 26 (Tuesday)
  • CASC | Long March 6 | Unknown Payload | 7:10 P.M. ET
    • LC-9A, Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China
• March 27 (Wednesday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 7-18 | 7:30 P.M. PT
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• March 28 (Thursday)
  • ULA | Delta IV Heavy | NROL-70 | 1:40 P.M. ET
    • SLC-37B, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• March 29 (Friday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 7-25 | 5:00 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• March 30 (Saturday)
  • Roscosmos | Soyuz 2.1b | Resurs-P No.4 | 5:36 A.M. ET
    • Site 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Eutelsat 36D | 5:52 P.M. ET
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

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ULA’s final ‘heavy metal’ launch

On Thursday, ULA plans to launch its final Delta IV Heavy rocket on a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office no earlier than Thursday. The original “what if we just x3 our rocket” rocket takes three common core boosters from he Delta IV launcher and straps them together. For a while, it was the most powerful and capable rocket on the market until SpaceX came along.

The current concerns with Thursday’s launch attempt will be weather. Recent reports show a 30% chance of favorable weather during the early afternoon launch. A weather front is coming into the area, something that is very common if you live in Florida, that will most likely bring thunderstorms along the Space Coast. If anything not related with the rocket or launch pad would delay the launch, ULA has an opportunity to try again on Friday.

While not a regular launcher, the Delta IV Heavy was the go to rocket for the governments biggest and most sensitive missions. Many of them were highly classified, and still are, missions carrying the NRO’s top of the line spy satellite. However, NASA used the rocket too for a test flight of its Orion spacecraft used with the SLS rocket and the Parker Solar Probe mission to “touch” the Sun.

With the successful first launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket earlier this year, Delta will officially be replaced. Along with the Atlas V, Vulcan will now do the role of both the medium and heavy lift rockets whom names date back to the early years of spaceflight history.

Make sure to stay tuned to ULA’s social media for updates on the mission. You won’t want to miss watching this rocket’s last metal rock performance of lighting itself on fire before liftoff.