The
Delta 3000 series was an American
expendable launch system which was
used to conduct thirty five orbital launches
between 1975 and 1989. It was a member of the
Delta family of rockets. Several
variants existed, which were differentiated by a
four digit
numerical code.
The first stage was the
RS-27 powered
Extended Long Tank Thor, first flown
on the
2000-series. Three or nine
Castor-4 solid rocket boosters were attached to
increase thrust at lift-off, replacing the less powerful Castor-2
boosters used on earlier models. Two second stages were available;
the
Delta P, which had been flown on several
older variants, or the
Delta-K, an uprated
version. Some launches used a three-stage configuration in order to
reach higher orbits. A
Star-37D,
Star-37E, or
Star-48B
PAM-D could be used as an
upper stage. Launches with PAM-D upper stages were designated
Delta 3XX0 PAM-D, rather than assigning a code to the
upper stage for use in the four-digit sequence. From the
4000-series onwards, the PAM-D received the upper
stage code "5", however this was not applied retrospectively to
3000-series rockets, which were still in service at the time.
The Delta
3000 was launched from Space Launch
Complex 2W
at Vandenberg
AFB
and Launch Complex 17A and B
at Cape Canaveral
. Of the thirty five launches, two failed,
and one resulted in a partial failure. The failures resulted in the
loss of the
Orbital Test
Satellite, when an SRM malfunction caused the rocket to
explode, and
GOES-G due to an electrical
fault which shut down the first stage engine. The partial failure
was due to the premature cutoff of the first stage, which left the
Dynamics Explorer spacecraft in a
lower orbit than planned.
References