11/17/06 ~ 2:12pm
Homepage Launch Photos
A Boeing Delta 2 rocket "rockets" the third modernized, and 16th replacement overall, Global Positioning System satellite into orbit 11,000 miles above the Earth on November 17 at 2:12pm EST.
These remote photos are taken from the Air Force Space and Missile Museum at Cape Canaveral, less than 2000 feet from Launch Complex 17 where Deltas have launched from for 46 years (the oldest active launch pad at Cape Canaveral). Standing prominently in the foreground is an original Thor-Able rocket from the early 1960s. In fact, this Thor, far smaller than the Delta 2 launching behind it, is standing at the very site of Launch Complex 26B, which on January 31, 1958 was the starting point for Explorer 1, America's first satellite. It was the Thor IRBM which was converted into a space launch vehicle and later renamed Delta (Delta being the fourth designed configuration). Since 1960 when the second Delta launched America's first communications satellite, Echo 1 (the first flight of a Delta rocket was a failure), exactly 321 Deltas have flown through the date of this launch.
