MV Delta Mariner

Delta Mariner docked at Port Canaveral, Florida, 2008
History
Name:	Delta Mariner
Owner:	Foss Maritime
Operator:	Foss Maritime
Port of registry:	Falling Waters, West Virginia
Builder:	Halter Marine Moss Point, Mississippi
Laid down:	October 26, 1998
Launched:	December 16, 1999
In service:	May 18, 2000
Identification:	Call sign: WCZ7837 IMO number: 9198501 MMSI number: 338731000
General characteristics
Type:	Roll-on/roll-off cargo ship
Tonnage:	8,679 GT 3,953 NT 3,887.6 LT DWT
Length:	312 ft (95.1 m)
Beam:	84 ft (25.6 m)
Height:	50 ft (15.2 m)
Draft:	8 ft (2.4 m)
Installed power:	2 × General Motors 16-710-G7A engines (4,000 hp/2,983 kW each) 4 × Caterpillar 3412C generator engines (831 hp/620 kW each) 1 × Caterpillar 3406C emergency engine (371 hp/277 kW)
Speed:	15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) (max. ocean) 5 kn (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) (max. river)
Crew:	16 + river pilots

Delta Mariner is a cargo ship operated by Foss Maritime for United Launch Alliance (ULA). Her primary role is transporting components for the ULA Atlas V and Delta IV rockets from the manufacturer, located in Decatur, Alabama, to launch facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The ship is designed for shallow inland waterways as well as the open ocean and is capable of carrying up to three 160-foot (49 m) long Delta IV Common Booster Cores. Some cargos carried by Delta Mariner were formerly transported by an Antonov An-124 Ruslan from the manufacturer to the launch site.

Completed rocket stages and other components are transported by truck approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the Decatur manufacturing facility to the dock on the Tennessee River and driven directly onto the ship.

From Decatur, Delta Mariner uses two routes to the Gulf of Mexico. The first route takes the vessel downstream on the Tennessee River to the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway, south to the Tombigbee River, and into Mobile Bay and the Gulf, a distance of about 550 miles (890 km). The current route takes the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers downstream, south on the Mississippi River, and into the Gulf, more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km).

From the ULA plant, Delta Mariner may travel around the Florida peninsula to Cape Canaveral, a 2,100-mile (3,400 km) trip; or through the Panama Canal to Vandenberg, a three-week journey which covers around 5,000 miles (8,000 km).