The Delta 0100 series, also Delta 100, 0300 or 300 series, was an American

expendable launch system An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are destroyed during reentry or impact with Earth, or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of s ...

which conducted

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

al launches between 1968 and 1972. It was a member of the

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

family of rockets, and the first to be designated using a four digit numerical code. Two variants were flown, individually designated Delta 0300 and Delta 0900. The

Long Tank Thor Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensu ...

, a stretched version of the

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

missile, was used as the first stage of the Delta 0100 series.

Castor-2 Castor is a family of solid-fuel rocket stages and boosters built by Thiokol (now Northrop Grumman) and used on a variety of launch vehicles. They were initially developed as the second-stage motor of the Scout rocket. The design was based on t ...

solid rocket booster A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and Space Shuttle, have used SRBs to give laun ...

s were attached to increase thrust at lift-off, three on the 0300 variant, and nine on the 0900. The second stage was a

Delta F Prednisolone is a corticosteroid, a steroid hormone used to treat certain types of allergies, inflammatory conditions, autoimmune disorders, and cancers, electrolyte imbalances and skin conditions. Some of these conditions include adrenocor ...

. Five 0100 series rockets were launched, three using the 0300 configuration, and two in the 0900 configuration. All launches occurred from Space Launch Complex 2W at

Vandenberg AFB Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from the ...

. There was one failure, the launch of ITOS E on July 16, 1973. A hydraulic pump malfunction led to loss of pressure to the second stage attitude control thrusters, causing the launch vehicle to tumble out of control and break up in the atmosphere. The Japanese N-I launch vehicle was derived from the Delta 0300, using a Japanese LE-3 engine on the second stage.

Capabilities

Capacity of the Delta 0100: *

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

(SSO), 1450 km × 101.990°: at least .

References

Delta (rocket family) {{rocket-stub