Family-level launch record combining canonical variants, historical missions, public cadence forecasts, and available payload performance specs.
Historical missions are grouped by actual launch year. Forecast cadence uses family-level launch-rate rows.
| Year | Historical missions | Forecast launches |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1 | 0 |
| 2018 | 2 | 0 |
| 2019 | 3 | 0 |
| 2020 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | 1 | 0 |
Payload capacity by variant and target orbit when structured capacity rows are available.
| Variant | Orbit | Capacity | Altitude | Inclination | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No performance specsNo structured payload capacity rows are linked to this vehicle family. | |||||
Latest launched missions using variants in this family.
| Mission | Variant | Launch |
|---|---|---|
| USA 353 Mission | Delta 4H B | Apr 9, 2024 |
| USA 345 Mission | Delta 4H B | Jun 22, 2023 |
| USA 338 Mission | Delta 4H B | Sep 24, 2022 |
| USA 314 Mission |
Canonical variants rolled up into this launch vehicle family.
| Variant | Stages | Missions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Delta 4H | Not stated | 8 | Retired |
Delta 4H A | Not stated | 5 | Retired |
Delta 4H B | Not stated | 3 | Retired |
Delta 4M | Not stated | 3 | Retired |
Delta 4H A |
| Apr 26, 2021 |
| USA 311 Mission | Delta 4H A | Dec 11, 2020 |
| GPS III SV02 Mission | Delta 4M+(4,2) A | Aug 22, 2019 |
| WGS 10 | Delta 4M+(5,4) A | Mar 16, 2019 |
| USA 290 Mission | Delta 4H A | Jan 19, 2019 |
Upcoming mission rows with announced launch timing.
| Mission | Variant | Announced |
|---|---|---|
No forecasted missionsNo upcoming announced mission rows are linked to this vehicle family. | ||
Delta 4M+(4,2) | Not stated | 13 | Retired |
Delta 4M+(4,2) A | Not stated | 2 | Retired |
Delta 4M+(5,2) | Not stated | 1 | Retired |
Delta 4M+(5,2) A | Not stated | 2 | Retired |
Delta 4M+(5,4) | Not stated | 4 | Retired |
Delta 4M+(5,4) A | Not stated | 4 | Retired |
United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 Medium has launched 28 times and its 29th and final mission will carry the Air Force’s second GPS-3 satellite on 2020-08-22.
On 2019-07-17, United Launch Alliance delayed the Delta 4 launch of an Air Force GPS satellite originally scheduled for 2019-07-25 until at least 2019-08-22.
Both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 vehicles use the RL10 upper stage engine made by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
United Launch Alliance is leasing SLC-6 for Delta IV Heavy launches at least until 2024.
SLC-6 was reactivated in the 1990s for Lockheed Martin Athena launches and later used for the Delta IV program.
A Delta IV Medium+ (4,2) rocket has arrived at Cape Canaveral to launch the second GPS III satellite on 2019-07-25.
OmegA’s cryogenic third stage will be powered by a variant of the RL-10 engine used on Atlas 5 and Delta 4.
United Launch Alliance received a U.S. Air Force contract modification on 2019-05-09 for a Delta IV Heavy launch of the NROL-68 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Funds for the Delta 4 launches were previously committed to ULA under an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Phase 1 block buy negotiated in 2013 for 36 cores.
United Launch Alliance is retiring the Delta 4 Medium in 2020.
The Air Force procured three additional Delta IV Heavy launches from United Launch Alliance to allow more time for competitors to mature propulsion systems for heavy rockets.
The first GPS 3 satellite launched in December on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and the second GPS 3 is slated to launch in July on a Delta IV.
The U.S. Air Force’s 10th Wideband Global Satcom communications satellite (WGS-10) launched on a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket at 8:26 PM EST from Space Launch Complex-37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
Exploration Flight Test-1 in December 2014 used a Delta IV Heavy to launch an Orion spacecraft with a boilerplate service module on a two-orbit mission around the Earth.
The EELV budget included $660,000,000 in 2019 in launch capability funding to help United Launch Alliance keep both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 in service.
A Delta IV Heavy launch was delayed from late 2018 to early 2019, shifting the profit associated with that launch into 2019.
A higher number of Delta IV launches in 2018 compared with expectations for 2019 contributed to anticipated lower earnings from ULA.
United Launch Alliance had 41 different configurations among the Atlas V, Delta IV, and the now-retired Delta II as recently as two years before 2019-11-28.
NASA is procuring two additional ICPS units from United Launch Alliance based on the Delta IV upper stage.
Shea Ferring has participated in over 50 space missions using various launch vehicles, including Minotaur, Atlas V, Delta IV, Pegasus, and Falcon 9.