New Plant to Support Delta IV

Boeing facilities manager Mark Schwartztrauber (left) confers with the contractor on plans for the new plant in Decatur.

Decatur, Alabama — Boeing is building a new 1.5 million-square-foot facility in Decatur for low-cost production of the booster core, a major component of the Delta IV rocket family. Start-up production is scheduled for February 1999. All Delta IV vehicles use a common booster core powered by the Boeing-built Rocketdyne RS-68 engine. The liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen-burning, 650,000-pound thrust engine is 30 percent more efficient than conventional liquid oxygen/kerosene engines, and is environmentally friendly.

In October, the U.S. Air Force procured 19 Boeing Delta IV launches and continued development of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program valued at $1.88 billion. EELV is a top priority Air Force program to develop a new generation of launch vehicles that will reduce the cost of boosting payloads into orbit. This initial launch services contract covers small, medium and heavy payload-class launches from 2002 to 2006. First launch of the Boeing Delta IV is scheduled for 2001.