Hello, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero.
What a run it’s been for the family of Delta rockets. I just watched this video from United Launch Alliance on the fascinating history of Delta going back to its beginnings as a nuclear missile during the Cold War.
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Fast forward to 2019.
As ULA was developing its new rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, I remember watching the last Delta IV Medium launch, which brings us to this week, when the last of any Delta IV configurations, the three-core Heavy, is set to launch for the 16th and final time on Thursday.
Before the mission, I’ll have the rare opportunity to interview ULA at the launch pad about Delta’s historic farewell. Vulcan Centaur is also replacing ULA’s Atlas V rocket after it serves its final missions. Atlas V still has 16 flights left until retirement, including astronaut missions to the International Space Station with Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
In 17 years, Delta IV Heavy has launched payloads for NASA, the Air Force, Space Force, National Reconnaissance Office (the NRO is Thursday’s customer), and has been 100% successful.
The launch Thursday is scheduled for 1:40 p.m., but weather conditions are only 30% favorable as of Monday morning.
📧 Send me an email here if you have any space topics you’d like to discuss.
👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!