Delta 3913

Thor-Delta 3913

Mission Profile

Delta 3913 was a three-stage American launch vehicle in the versatile Delta family, combining the Extended Long Tank Thor core with a liquid-fueled second stage and solid strap-on boosters to achieve improved performance over earlier Delta variants. Standing 35.4 meters tall with a liftoff mass of 195,000 kg and generating 3,310 kN of thrust, it made its maiden flight in August 1981. The Delta 3913 served as a reliable workhorse for deploying commercial and government satellites during the early 1980s, offering increased payload capacity to geosynchronous transfer orbit that met the growing demand from communications satellite operators during that decade's boom in commercial satellite deployments.