Launch delay ends United Launch Alliance's 2017 schedule
James DeanUnited Launch Alliance’s 2017 launch campaign officially ended Wednesday when a planned launch from California next week was delayed until January.
The Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture completed eight U.S. government missions this year aboard Atlas and Delta rockets, including five from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and three from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
That total was down from 12 last year, and half as many has SpaceX has launched so far this year.
ULA tentatively has a dozen government missions scheduled in 2018, eight of them from the Cape.
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They include test flights of the Starliner crew capsule Boeing is developing to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
Boeing is targeting an uncrewed test flight in August, followed by a test flight with a two-person crew in November.
SpaceX says test pilots could launch aboard its Dragon next August under the same program.
However, many expect the first launches of astronauts from U.S. soil since the shuttle program’s 2011 retirement to slip until 2019.
ULA kicked off this year's Cape manifest with a Jan. 20 flight of an Atlas V carrying a missile warning satellite.
Its final mission came Nov. 18 in California, lofting a weather satellite to orbit atop the second-to-last Delta II rocket to fly.
In between, ULA deployed the Air Force’s ninth Wideband Global Satcom communications spacecraft; an Orbital ATK Cygnus module packed with International Space Station supplies; a NASA tracking and data relay satellite; and three classified missions for the National Reconnaissance Office.
A fourth launch for the NRO was targeted for next Wednesday, Dec. 13, from Vandenberg. But ULA said Wednesday, Dec. 6, that it would take more time to test an upgraded command and control system flying for the first time on its Delta IV rocket.
The NROL-47 mission now is targeted for no earlier than Jan. 10. ULA’s first Cape launch next year is expected Jan. 18, flying another Space-Based Infrared System missile warning satellite on an Atlas V.
SpaceX is targeting a launch of ISS supplies from the Cape as soon as 11:46 a.m. next Tuesday, Dec. 12, and a Dec. 22 launch of commercial satellites from Vandenberg, potentially raising its 2017 launch total to 18, more than double its best year to date.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FlameTrench.