The Nation - News from Aug. 13, 1989
In the third major Free World rocket launch in five days, the 126-foot, $30-million Delta 2, equipped with nine strap-on solid-fuel boosters, was scheduled for takeoff from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida early today. Atop the slender blue-and-white rocket inside a protective nose cone was the third of 21 new $65-million Global Positioning System navigation satellites designed to tell military units their locations to within 53 feet anywhere in the world. Heavy thunderstorms rolled through the cape and an Air Force spokeswoman said there was a 20% chance of the weather delaying the launch.
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