Delta IV Heavy

Three identical common booster cores, each with an RS-68A burning liquid hydrogen, side by side under a cryogenic upper stage. At ignition the hydrogen collecting around the engines caught fire and wrapped the base of the orange rocket in flames, its signature sight. Over 16 flights from 2004 to 2024 it launched heavy US government satellites and, in 2018, Parker Solar Probe toward the Sun.

Key figures

Builder

United Launch Alliance

Status

Retired

First flight

2004

Last flight

2024

Height

70.7 m

Diameter

5.1 m

Mass at launch

733 t

Liftoff thrust

9,411 kN

Payload to low Earth orbit

28.4 t

Payload to geostationary transfer orbit

14.2 t

Flights

16

Missions

• Parker Solar Probe: The Complete Mission in Real-Time 3D

Destinations

• Sun

Launch pads

• SLC-37B (2018, Modelled for Parker Solar Probe)

All spacecraft