NASA Selects Delta II for ICESat-2 Mission

"United Launch Alliance is honored that NASA has selected the Delta II to launch this critical science mission," said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Mission Operations.

"While we achieve mission success one-launch-at-a-time, the ULA team has a long history of many successful missions launched on Delta II, including 50 missions for our NASA customer. In addition to the Delta II, the ULA team is also successfully launching a wide array of missions on the Atlas V and Delta IV systems. The Delta II launch system continues to offer excellent reliability and value to our customers and we look forward to launching the ICESat-2 mission together with the NASA team," says Sponnick.

The newly contracted mission is scheduled to launch in July of 2016 from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

ULA's Delta II has launched the majority of NASA's critical science missions over the last decade including the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Genesis, Phoenix Mars Lander, Stardust, and the twin GRAIL spacecraft.

ULA's next launch is the Atlas V SBIRS GEO-2 mission for the Air Force scheduled for March 19 from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.