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Boeing prepares to reunite its fractured Delta team BY JUSTIN RAY SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: February 5, 2006 After a contentious three-month strike that put hundreds of Delta rocket machinists on the picket line, those workers begin returning to work Monday, as Boeing officials try to soothe bitter feelings from the lengthy labor dispute and finally resume the stalled launch schedule.
The strike grounded three Delta rockets that were supposed to fly last year to deploy critical national security and environmental satellites, and the 2006 mission lineup has been pushed back considerably. Workers are returning to their jobs at the two primary U.S. launch sites: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, plus the Delta engineering hub in Huntington Beach, California and the rocket manufacturing plant at Decatur, Alabama. In an interview Friday, Boeing's director of Delta launch operations, Rick Navarro, previewed his message to the returning union work force: "Welcome back. We respect the choices you made, everyone made. We have a very exciting and busy 2006. And our customers are counting on us." But when the next Delta rocket will blast off is not yet clear. Managers need to review worker certifications and training that may have lapsed during the strike, hold briefings on the status of flight hardware, finish closing out technical issues and await word from the launch customers on the readiness of the satellite payloads. It will be an "orderly, disciplined process" to bring the full Delta team back together, Navarro said. And it will take some time. "We're going to go and carefully detail out how to get everybody back up to the same level of training that they were before they left." He added that workers shouldn't worry about discovering their duties have been changed. "Everybody is coming back to the job they had, including the certifications they held, the responsibilities they held." Another priority on the agenda, Navarro said, will be pointing out the "ground rules" of conduct, given the raw emotions between co-workers, including union members who decided to cross the picket line during the strike. "We're just having some reminders to the fact that we all -- salaried, union, management, non-management -- have signed up to the Boeing code of conduct that promises each other high standards of work with absolutely no room for either side to engage in behavior that is detrimental to employees or to the work we do," Navarro said. That work is preparing Delta 2 and Delta 4 rockets to haul expensive spacecraft into orbit for organizations like NASA, the Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office. "I think we are going to leave behind anything and everything that was a disagreement (from the strike). And when you look at our larger national mission, it is pretty easy to go back and concentrate on what's important to the customers," Navarro said. "We're going to have some of our customers come and visit us, and re-tell the story of the importance of their missions." A roster showing the exact order of upcoming launches hasn't been established, Navarro said, adding that those details will begin taking shape by mid-February. In any event, no launches are expected before April, he said. "I don't think we want to rush to any sooner than that." A Delta 4 at Cape Canaveral has the civilian GOES-N weather satellite already mounted aboard for launch. It was supposed to fly last summer but encountered technical problems that put the mission on hold. The satellite will orbit 22,300 miles above the planet, becoming the first in a new series of U.S. weather observatories with advanced instruments to improve forecasting. Vandenberg Air Force Base has a Delta 2 vehicle waiting to carry a pair of environmental research satellites into orbit for NASA. That launch had been scheduled for November 7 only to be called off in late October when the strike was looming. NASA's CloudSat will use radar to study clouds and attempt to determine how rain and snow are produced; the joint U.S./French CALIPSO satellite will examine the impacts that clouds and aerosols have in changes to the Earth's climate. Also at Vandenberg is the first West Coast Delta 4 rocket that will launch a top-secret U.S. National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite cargo. Its October launch date was postponed due to concerns about fuel sloshing in the second stage. Changes to the flight profile have been made to fix that concern. "The sloshing (issue) is essentially closed. We're down to the final testing which is folded into the pre-launch campaign," Navarro said. In addition to those three missions that slid into 2006, this year's manifest already included a handful of Delta 2 launches with Global Positioning System replacement satellites for the Air Force, more NASA science spacecraft and the first operational Delta 4-Heavy rocket. Navarro estimates that at least 9 or 10 launches could occur this year. "It is a full plate, and we'll take it slow. But we think we can get back in business sooner rather than later." He also said the perplexing quality problems with rocket batteries, something company engineers have been fighting for months, appear to be nearing resolution. The internal batteries power the safety-destruct system that would destroy a wayward rocket to protect the public and property. "We believe we are over the hump. But it is a very large community (that has to agree on the resolution) especially on an issue with the batteries. There are a number of technical reviews, engineering review boards that we have to go to." |
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