Satellites Launched by Boeing’s ‘Dual Payload’

A Delta II rocket carrying satellites was launched Tuesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base without a hitch, according to Boeing Co.’s Huntington Beach space operation.

The rocket, which lifted off at 10:24 a.m., carried Earth-observing satellites for NASA and for the government of Argentina, as well as a Swedish “nanosatellite” designed and built by college students to gather space weather data.

The rocket jettisoned each spacecraft on schedule, beginning with NASA’s after 1 hour and 10 minutes and ending with the Swedish separation after 1 hour and 50 minutes, Takahashi said.

The mission to launch dual payloads was made possible because of a new dispenser called the Dual Payload Attach Fitting, Boeing said in a press release. NASA hired Boeing to develop the dispenser.