Skip to content

EVERYLAUNCH
PLAY
TDL

Rocket file · LV-408

Thor Delta L

McDonnell Douglas · Thor · RETIRED

Thor Delta L is an expendable launch vehicle built by McDonnell Douglas. It stands 35.0 m tall, lifts 300 kg to low Earth orbit, first flew on 27 August 1969. It has flown 2 times with 1 successes, a success rate of 50.0%. It has nothing on the Launch Library 2 schedule right now.

Specification

Vehicle spec sheet

ON FILE
Height35.0 m
Diameter2.4 m
Payload to LEO300 kg
Payload to GTO300 kg
Maiden flight27 August 1969
ReusableNo, expendable
Launch cost$16.5M
StatusRETIRED

As listed by Launch Library 2. The cost is Launch Library’s figure, not a quoted price. Figures for rockets outside the sixty most-flown were last read on 2026-11-05.

Flight record

Reliability

ON RECORD
Total flights2
Successful1
Failed1
Success rate50.0%
Landing attempts0
Landing successN/A
Scheduled0
VariantDelta L

About Thor Delta L

American orbital launch vehicle family with Thor first stage and a delta second stage.

Upcoming flights

Manifest

EMPTY

Thor Delta L is retired, and no flight is filed.

All upcoming launches

Thor Delta L in the archive

From NASA's public image library and Wikimedia Commons. Each photo shows the credit its licence asks for and links back to where it came from.

DeltaL-1011
DeltaL-1011No machine-readable author provided. Boeing 727~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗
Pioneer E Launch GPN-2003-00038
Pioneer E Launch GPN-2003-00038NASA Headquarters - GReatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗
Echo 1 payload mounted at top of third-stage Thor-Delta launch vehicle
Echo 1 payload mounted at top of third-stage Thor-Delta launch vehicleNASA · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗

Orbitburn is a gravity lander game with 25 ships. It's free on Android, and you can play it in your browser.Get it free on Google Play

Common questions

How many times has Thor Delta L flown?
2 times, with 1 successes and 1 failures.
What is Thor Delta L's success rate?
50.0%. That's 1 successful flights out of 2 attempts.
How much can Thor Delta L lift to orbit?
Launch Library 2 lists Thor Delta L at 300 kg to low Earth orbit and 300 kg to geostationary transfer orbit.
Is Thor Delta L reusable?
No. Launch Library 2 lists Thor Delta L as expendable, so no stage is recovered to fly again.