In Prep for the Last Delta IV Launch

In the aftermath of this Thursday morning's launch of the second to last Delta IV Heavy, we learn via Spaceflight Now that ULA has shut down the Delta manufacturing facility in Decatur, Alabama.  The final Delta IV was shipped to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in early May on their dedicated transport vessel the R/S RocketShip.  This photo is tagged as having been taken on May 11, 2023 at 11:37AM. 

United Launch Alliance delivered the main components of the final Delta 4-Heavy rocket to Cape Canaveral in May for launch in early 2024 on the classified NROL70 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. Two of the three Delta 4-Heavy boosters are seen here. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now.

“We’ve completed all the Delta hardware there in Decatur,” Wentz said in an interview Tuesday with Spaceflight Now. “We’re in the process of transitioning the factory to support higher rate production of the Vulcan hardware. [Note: that's Gary Wentz, ULA’s vice president for government and commercial programs - SiG]

“That was a huge accomplishment for the Decatur team to be able to complete the last Delta 4, get it shipped down to the Cape, and now it’s in the hands of our launch ops team,” Wentz said. “As soon as we launch L-68, we’ve already started doing some of the horizontal processing of L-70, and our plan is to prep it to support the customer’s launch next year.”

As we've talked about before, the Delta IV's missions will be moved to the new Vulcan Centaur.  With the last Atlas V coming within the next few years, it will mean the end of both the Delta and Atlas families, two of the most storied rockets in history.  Rockets bearing the Delta name began launching in 1960, and 388 Delta rockets have flown to date, including Thursday morning's Delta IV Heavy with its NROL68 payload. 

ULA says the Vulcan rocket is less expensive than the Atlas and Delta rockets, and it uses engines built in the United States, replacing the Russian engines that power the Atlas 5 rocket. The Delta 4 rocket also uses all U.S.-made engines, but it is more expensive than the Atlas 5. In its most powerful configuration, the Vulcan Centaur will outlift the Delta 4-Heavy, without needing to use three first stage boosters to do the job.

While it looks like the Vulcan won't be able to launch its two certification flights before the end of the year, ULA has more than 70 Vulcan missions in its backlog, primarily for National Security payloads and Amazon’s Kuiper broadband network, the planned rival to SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation.  They just can't launch any of those National Security missions until their Cert-1 and Cert-2 missions are accepted - it has no bearing on Kuiper launches. 

They need more throughput for Vulcan rockets and that's what to become of the Decatur plant.

...In response to the deep backlog, ULA is expanding the footprint of its 1.6 million-square-foot factory in Alabama, which was originally built by Boeing for the Delta 4 program, before ULA shifted Atlas rocket production there from Colorado. The factory is now transitioning to focus fully on Vulcan.

“For a while, obviously, we had Delta 4 and Atlas flowing through that factory,” Wentz said. “The most significant and obvious parts are in the final assembly area for Delta 4, which coincidentally, we’ve been processing Vulcans through. So Vulcan final assembly will flow right in there, and we’ll be able to increase our rate in that area.”

The last remnant of the Delta 4 program at the Alabama factory is the third and final upper stage ULA is building for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket to carry astronauts back to the moon. That upper stage is derived from the Delta 4-Heavy design, and will power the Artemis 3 mission into space in a few years. Then NASA will switch to a more powerful upper stage for future SLS moon rockets. [the Exploration Upper Stage - SiG]