Boeing

After several months of successful testing, the first production Boeing [NYSE: BA] Delta IV common booster core (CBC) is now heading to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. (CCAFS), where it will help validate the design of the new Boeing launch facility, Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC 37).

The CBC is fresh off the test stand at John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., where it cleared a major hurdle in the development of the Delta IV rocket by completing a series of milestone hotfire tests.

"The hotfire tests were critical to proving the design of the CBC for the first stage of the Delta IV Launch Vehicle," said Dan Barron, director of Boeing Delta IV common booster core development. "This was the first production CBC built at our new facility in Decatur, Ala.

"This CBC has been a real workhorse for us and it performed beautifully. With the hotfire test series behind us, we are taking the next step forward in focusing on our first launch. This CBC will now be used for mechanical pathfinder activities to prove out the processing operations at the new launch pad being completed for the Delta IV."

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