NATO Picks McDonnell Douglas Delta 2 Rocket
McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co.’s Delta 2 booster rocket has been selected by NATO as the launch vehicle for a military communications satellite, company officials said Tuesday.
“We are in the final stages of negotiations and expect to sign a contract very shortly,” said Tom Williams, a spokesman for McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach.
Williams would not discuss the value of the contract. For previous commercial contracts, McDonnell Douglas has charged its customers about $50 million for each Delta launch.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization satellite is being built by a British-led industry consortium and will be used for military communications among NATO nations.
The NATO deal would be the seventh commercial order for McDonnell Douglas since it reopened its Delta production line in January, 1987, after a 2 1/2-year shutdown. The company resumed Delta production after receiving an Air Force contract to build up to 20 Delta rockets for launching military navigation satellites.
McDonnell Douglas has been seeking commercial customers for the Delta since the National Aeronautics and Space Administration dropped out of the commercial launch business in reaction to the January, 1986, Challenger space shuttle disaster.
The first commercial launch of a Delta is scheduled for spring, 1989, when the government of India plans to launch a communications satellite.
McDonnell Douglas’ Huntington Beach unit performs design, engineering and fabrication of some parts for the Delta rocket. Final assembly takes place at a company facility in Pueblo, Colo.
