spacetoday.net: Delta 4 launches military communications satellite

Posted: Sat, Aug 30, 2003, 9:13 AM ET (1313 GMT)
Delta 4 launch of DSCS 3B-6 (Boeing)

A Delta 4 booster successfully launched the last in a series of military communications satellites Friday evening. The Delta 4 Medium lifted off from Pad 37B at Cape Canaveral at 7:13 pm EDT (2313 GMT) Friday; its payload, the DSCS 3-B6 communications satellite, separated from the upper stage 42 minutes later. The satellite is the last in the Defense Satellite Communications System, a series of military communications satellites that dates back nearly four decades. The DSCS system will be gradually phased out as a new series of satellites, Wideband Gapfiller, is launched later this decade. The launch was the third for the Delta 4 since its introduction last November and the second military EELV launch, after another Delta 4 launch of a DSCS communications satellite in March.