WHY IS THE US DEVELOPING THE DELTA ROCKETS
WHEN THE SATURN 5 IS SO MUCH BETTER?
The Delta rockets are Americas attempt to catch up with the Chinese, French and Russians in the satellite launching business. They are being developed by Boeing.
They come in three major varieties the Delta 2's (now a reliable delivery system) the Delta 3 and the Delta 4's.
The Delta 2's come in a number of varieties, namely the models 7326-10, 7425-10, 7925-10, 7925 and the 7925-H10L.
The Delta 3 has only one model: the 8930.
The Delta 4 's come in a number of varieties, namely the models, Medium, Medium-Plus_(4,2), Medium-Plus_(5,2), Medium-Plus_(5,4) and the Heavy (Boeing certainly has shown no imagination in its naming of the Delta 4 's)
The following are the payloads (in kilograms) that the Delta rockets can carry to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).
| Delta model | LEO payload | GTO payload |
|---|
| Delta 2's |
|---|
| Delta 7326-10 | 2,731 kgs | 898 kgs |
| Delta 7425-10 | 3,094 kgs | 1,102 kgs |
| Delta 7925-10 | 4,971 kgs | 1,799 kgs |
| Delta 7925 | 5,139 kgs | 1,869 kgs |
| Delta 7925-H10L | 5815 kgs | 2,064 kgs |
| Delta 3 |
|---|
| Delta 8930 | 8,292 kgs | 3,810 kgs |
| Delta 4's |
|---|
| Medium | 8,120 kgs | 4,210 kgs |
| Medium-Plus_(4,2) | 10,430 kgs | 5,845 kgs |
| Medium-Plus_(5,2) | 7,980 kgs | 4,640 kgs |
| Medium-Plus_(5,4) | 11,475 kgs | 6,565 kgs |
| Heavy | 23,040 kgs | 13,130 kgs |
Note: the maximum payload that any of these rockets will be able to lift into Low Earth Orbit is 23,040 kgs.
Remember that the Saturn 5 can lift about 127,000 kgs into Low Earth Orbit.
Does it not seem strange to you that the US is researching and developing these rockets (some have not yet flown) when they have the good old Saturn 5 which can lift 100,000 lb = 45,000 kgs right up there all the way to the moon and can lift 280,000 lb = 127,000 kgs into Low Earth Orbit.
Why is the US attempting to develop a brand new set of rockets that (when they finally get them up and running) will only preform at a fraction (about 1/6 th) of the capability of the old Saturn 5's.
Something, smells in the land of the US of A. Something truly stinks,.....
A note of explanation: The orbit used for transfer to geostationary orbit is named appropriately enough a "geostationary transfer orbit". It is an elliptical orbit with one edge of the ellipse at low earth orbit and the other at geostationary orbit. It takes much less energy to get to a geostationary transfer orbit than it does to get to a geostationary orbit, hence the payloads that can be launched to a geostationary orbit are much smaller than those that can be launched to a geostationary transfer orbit.