NGLS - Next-Generation Launch System от ULA

Автор Salo, 23.02.2015 09:43:06

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Salo

http://aviationweek.com/defense/new-rocket-white-tails-ula-s-long-term-strategy-0
ЦитироватьNew Rocket, White Tails In ULA's Long-Term Strategy
Feb 17, 2015 Amy Butler Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

WASHINGTON and ORLANDO, Florida – United Launch Alliance's (ULA) plan to field a new rocket engine with Blue Origin called the BE-4 is only step one of a larger strategic plan to take the company fr om a sole-source benefactor mentality to competing in a burgeoning commercial market.
With that plan, ULA's current launchers – the Atlas V (developed originally by Lockheed Martin) and Delta IV (developed originally by Boeing) – will likely be supplanted by a new, yet-to-be-named rocket design within the next decade. The Atlas V and Delta IV are the workhorse rockets for the Defense Department and have been since the early 2000s. But both have a limited future. Last year, former ULA Chief Executive Officer Mike Gass said the per-unit cost of an Atlas V 401 mission was $164 million; a Delta IV heavy mission was priced at $350 million. These prices are averages for the 36-core deal signed between ULA and the Air Force.
Atlas V – the Pentagon's rocket of choice for price and performance – is stunted due to tensions between Washington and Moscow over the latter's ambitions in Ukraine. Russia supplies the RD180 engine for it and Congress has mandated that no Atlas engines to be purchased can be used for national security missions. Delta IV has a stellar launch record but is more expensive. Nonetheless, its heavy variant is one of a kind and is the driving reason why the family will remain active into the future.
That is until ULA or another company can build a replacement. ULA CEO Tory Bruno, who was named to that position last August, abruptly replacing Gass, says the company is also developing a new upper stage to take the place of the legacy RL-10 built by Aerojet Rocketdyne and Dynetics that now mates with the Atlas V and Delta IV.
He is also reducing the company's infrastructure from five launch pads – supporting both launch vehicles – to two. One will be on each coast and will support operations for the Next-Generation Launch System (NGLS) as well as support the last Atlas V and Delta IV missions, Bruno told Aviation Week during a Feb. 17 interview. The company announced in 2008 it would drop one of its Delta II pads, leaving five pads in its infrastructure. The company oversees so many pads because it inherited both launch fleets supporting the Air Force's policy of maintaining two launch vehicles for assured access to space. The company eventually plans to go to two pads "just a couple of years after we introduce the Next-Generation Launch System," which is slated to be flight tested in 2019, Bruno says. "We'll be ramping up the new rocket and we'll be ramping down the Atlas and Delta so it'll be just a couple of years ... before we can retire the other pads and be completely dependent on the new pads."
The assumption is that the national policy will be filled in the future with two competing launch companies – not a single company managing two different rocket fleets.
In September Bruno and Blue Origin, a secretive Seattle-based company funded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, announced a partnership to develop the BE-4, a liquefied natural gas engine designed to both replace the RD180 in the Atlas V and to support the NGLS design. The BE-4 was originally being designed for Blue Origin's New Shepard Launch Vehicle, and the companies are scaling it up to produce about 550,000 lb. of thrust for Atlas V and NGLS – up to 15% more thrust than the RD180, Bruno says. "It is not a major amount of work having to be done over again in order to scale," he said. Two of the engines would be needed for the boost required by the Air Force.
The NGLS will be capable – when coupled with the new upper stage – to take over heavy payload missions now handled exclusively by the Delta IV heavy, Bruno says. Air Force certification for the engine is expected to take about one or two flights to achieve, Bruno says, adding that up to one year is likely required to allow the Air Force to review and qualify its hardware.
The company expects to require less time than SpaceX needed to certify its Falcon 9 v1.1, in part because it has already included the Air Force in its design review process and because the new system will rely on legacy processes already approved for the Atlas V and Delta IV programs. The Air Force and SpaceX signed the cooperative research and development agreement on its Falcon 9 certification in June 2013; Teague says certification is likely this summer.
The near-term priority for ULA is to field the BE-4. The team is now testing components for it and "they are right wh ere I expected them to be" in development, Bruno said. Full-scale engine firings are slated for around 2017.
Bruno said ULA has a cost target for NGLS, but he declined to provide it.
Meanwhile, the Air Force is scrambling to devise an acquisition strategy to take advantage of both advances in the commercial market – SpaceX is also pushing for an upgraded Merlin engine and Aerojet Rocketdyne is developing the AR-1 as an RD180 replacement – as well as funding provided by Congress. Lawmakers set aside $220 million in fiscal 2015 to begin a next-generation rocket engine program, but the Air Force did not include a procurement strategy in its fiscal 2016 budget request sent to Congress Feb. 2. Experts estimate a new engine will cost at least $1 billion to develop, and the Air Force's fiscal 2016 request includes only $514 million through fiscal 2020. This is in part because the fiscal 2015 appropriation arrived so late, said Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, director of space program procurement for the Air Force secretary. It gave the Air Force little time to plan to use the funding.
Air Force Space Command chief Gen. John Hyten says the strategy should be out in the spring or summer. It ultimately will call on industry for a large portion of the investment, Hyten told Aviation Week during a Feb. 12 interview at the annual Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando. "It is clear the Congress wants a competition as soon as possible," he said, adding that the Air Force wants to continue to purchase launch services rather than develop its own engine to be handed to industry as government-furnished equipment. "There are some very interesting engine development programs going on right now, so the first thing we have to do is to explore the public-private partnerships that can take advantage of the work that is already going on in industry ... We want to use our investment dollars to continue to explore those engine technologies. If we can't work those things out we have to basically figure out how to build an engine that can be used by anybody and get off the RD180."
Bruno, meanwhile, says ULA's partnership with Aerojet Rocketdyne to develop the AR-1 is a "backup plan" to the BE-4. The AR-1 is a kerosene engine also being designed as an RD180 replacement by Dynetics and Aerojet Rocketdyne. NASA has invested about $50 million in risk-reduction work for this engine and advocates are hoping the Air Force will carry on the work, according to an industry source. Thus far, the team is conducting risk reduction for main injector stability, the source says. The Air Force recently signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center allowing for the risk reduction to continue with Air Force oversight and funding. AR-1 advocates are arguing that the Air Force should build an engine directly and not contract simply for the launch services. The Air Force could do this using NASA as its technical overseer, they say.
Meanwhile, ULA is also planning to buy long-lead parts for "white tail" rockets – i.e., vehicles not yet sold – beyond the 36-core deal funded as a bulk buy by the Air Force. This is in anticipation of the company breaking further into the NASA market as well as the commercial market.
"We intend to go aggressively now after NASA commercial activities – cargo and crew – as well as pursuing [the] commercial market place which is largely comsats in the GEO orbit," Bruno says. "Some of these customers don't order so far in advance that it would be earlier than the long-lead part requirement, so that forces us to act like a commercial company like we are and anticipate the need and place those long-lead orders having confidence that we will sell them later."
The concept of building white tails was anathema to ULA only a year or so ago as the company was in the luxurious position of being the monopoly launch services provider to the Pentagon for large national security missions. Now, however, Bruno notes that the market has changed substantially, driving ULA to change with it.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Димитър

ИМХО, семейство новых ракета будет иметь основную конфигурацию из первой ступени на двух ВЕ-4 на метане и вторая ступень - на один ВЕ-3 на водороде. Дополнительно - ТТУ из существующих и вариант "Хеви" с двумя БУ на основе первой ступени. Из-за более высоких тяги и УИ, и ПН будет существенно больше, чем у аналогичного Атласа.

Apollo13

ULA проводит конкурс на лучшее имя новой РН. В конце месяца обещают открыть онлайн голосование.

http://spacenews.com/ula-crowdsourcing-the-name-of-its-next-rocket/
ЦитироватьUnited Launch Alliance is tapping the wisdom of the crowd to choose a name for the rocket it is developing to replace the Atlas 5 and the Delta 4 launch vehicles around the end of the decade.

ULA employees from across the United States have submitted nearly 300 names. Those names will be winnowed down to a list of finalists for an online vote ULA will open to the public later this month.


Дмитрий В.

ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
ИМХО, семейство новых ракета будет иметь основную конфигурацию из первой ступени на двух ВЕ-4 на метане и вторая ступень - на один ВЕ-3 на водороде. Дополнительно - ТТУ из существующих и вариант "Хеви" с двумя БУ на основе первой ступени. Из-за более высоких тяги и УИ, и ПН будет существенно больше, чем у аналогичного Атласа.
Да, такой вариант рисовали на NSF
 http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=35754.0 
Lingua latina non penis canina
StarShip - аналоговнет!

Антон

ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
ИМХО, семейство новых ракета будет иметь основную конфигурацию из первой ступени на двух ВЕ-4 на метане и вторая ступень - на один ВЕ-3 на водороде. Дополнительно - ТТУ из существующих и вариант "Хеви" с двумя БУ на основе первой ступени. Из-за более высоких тяги и УИ, и ПН будет существенно больше, чем у аналогичного Атласа.
а как же старые добрые Rl-10?

Salo

Дороги запредельно.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

#6
ЦитироватьДмитрий В. пишет:
ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
ИМХО, семейство новых ракета будет иметь основную конфигурацию из первой ступени на двух ВЕ-4 на метане и вторая ступень - на один ВЕ-3 на водороде. Дополнительно - ТТУ из существующих и вариант "Хеви" с двумя БУ на основе первой ступени. Из-за более высоких тяги и УИ, и ПН будет существенно больше, чем у аналогичного Атласа.
Да, такой вариант рисовали на NSF
 http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=35754.0
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=li39mce4a809nb87gddiuv3vg0&topic=35754.msg1264656#msg1264656
ЦитироватьHyperion5 пишет:
Given that Jim's thread on the new Blue Origin engine for ULA has a tough time discussing things like solids in relation to the new LV, I thought I'd start a general thread for the new ULA launch vehicle. In the opening post, I hope to put all of the materials we've gotten on the LV and its core engines together.

What we know so far is that Blue Origin will be supplying United Launch Alliance (ULA) two 500 tf Liquid natural gas/oxygen BE-4 engines to power an all-new, Delta IV-diameter (5.1 m) core. The engine's likely Isp is believed to be roughly 309 seconds at sea level and 342 seconds in a vacuum (estimate by R7). These engines will power a stage that will be about 28 meters tall. According to Dr. Sowers of ULA, this stage will likely be mated to an existing upper stage at first, with the Centaur stage of the Atlas V and the 5 meter Delta Cryogenic Second Stage seen as the most likely. There is also the possibility of an upgraded upper stage eventually being built. Possible engines for such a stage include the hydrolox RL-10C, the hydrolox BE-3U, and a hydrolox XCOR engine.

NSF's resident LV simulator, Dmitry Vorontsov, has generously taken his time to simulate the possible capabilities of this new LV with various upper stages. His first simulation was of a fully-upgraded LV with a large upper stage and a core stage with a mass-saving common bulkhead. He has also simulated the possible performance of this LV with the 3 existing ULA upper stages. The simulation numbers are listed below:

BE-3U version of Atlas VI/Delta V

Rocket   Atlas 6/Delta V
Total Gross Mass   430 mt
Payload to GTO   8.85 mt
Payload to LEO   20.2 mt (all figures below are for GTO launch)
SI Gross Mass   362.36 mt
SI Propellant Mass   340.30
SI Separation Mass   22.06 mt
SI Diameter   5.1 meters
SI Engine(s)   2xBE-4 LNG/oxygen engines
SI SL Thrust   500 tf
SI Vac Thrust   557 tf
SI Isp SL/Vac   307/342 seconds
SII Gross Mass   56.30 mt
SII Propellant Mass   49.87 mt
SII Separation Mass   6.43 mt
SII Engine   1xBE-3U hydrogen/oxygen engine
SII Thrust (Vacuum)   50 tf
SII Engine Isp   450 Seconds
PLF Mass   2.478 mt
PLF Diameter   5.1 meters
Separation time   220 seconds
LV with existing ULA upper stages:
Atlas VI/Delta V w/Centaur: 7.2 mt to GTO (SEC)
Atlas VI/Delta V w/4 m DCSS: 7.9 mt to GTO
Atlas VI/Delta V w/5 m DCSS: 7.4 mt to GTO

There have been all sorts of things mentioned in connection with this LV. Like what SRBs, if any, will ULA mount on it IF it is to replace even the Delta IV Heavy rocket? Will they use the Delta IV's GEM-60s, which are meant for use with this core size, or will they use the Atlas V's SRBs? Will ULA be able to shut down all but a handful of pads moving to this new LV? Will this be enough to drastically cut ULA's costs and get them back into the commercial launch market? Will there be a universal PLF for the family? Will it be man-rated and launch the CST-100? There are plenty more things to discuss with regards to this family, so feel free to bring up any you think relevant.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Димитър

Ничего себе! 20 тонн на ЛЕО в основной конфигурации? Значит Хеви будет иметь ПН как у SLS-1, а если догадаются поставить 4 БУ, получат как у SLS-2 !?

Apollo13

ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
Ничего себе! 20 тонн на ЛЕО в основной конфигурации? Значит Хеви будет иметь ПН как у SLS-1, а если догадаются поставить 4 БУ, получат как у SLS-2 !?
Спредшит завышает. Реально будет 16-18т. NGLS Хэви может и не быть, если он с ТТУ сможет заменить Дельту-4 Хэви.

Дмитрий В.

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
Ничего себе! 20 тонн на ЛЕО в основной конфигурации? Значит Хеви будет иметь ПН как у SLS-1, а если догадаются поставить 4 БУ, получат как у SLS-2 !?
Спредшит завышает. Реально будет 16-18т. NGLS Хэви может и не быть, если он с ТТУ сможет заменить Дельту-4 Хэви.
Далеко не всегда, и не только завышает. Очень много зависит от точности исходных данных.
Lingua latina non penis canina
StarShip - аналоговнет!

Антон

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
Дороги запредельно.
Т.е. Получается NASA они развели аж на 4 дорогущих движка, которые они сами использовать не собираются?

Apollo13

Конфигурация NGLS еще даже официально не объявлена. Да и каким будет EUS тоже вилами по воде писано. Пусть SLS хотя бы без него хоть раз полетит.

frigate

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Конфигурация NGLS еще даже официально не объявлена. Да и каким будет EUS тоже вилами по воде писано. Пусть SLS хотя бы без него хоть раз полетит.
По Evolved upper stage была информация от Боинга в 2014 году - J-2X положили в долгий ящик, там было три варианта связок по 4 водородных ЖРД.
"Селена, луна. Селенгинск, старинный город в Сибири: город лунных ракет." Владимир Набоков

Антон

Цитироватьfrigate пишет:
ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Конфигурация NGLS еще даже официально не объявлена. Да и каким будет EUS тоже вилами по воде писано. Пусть SLS хотя бы без него хоть раз полетит.
По Evolved upper stage была информация от Боинга в 2014 году - J-2X положили в долгий ящик, там было три варианта связок по 4 водородных ЖРД.
Просто вариант с J-2x из-за низкого УИ слишком мало выводил на высокие орбиты

Salo

А тяга в 130 тс ни на какие мысли не наводит?
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Антон

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
А тяга в 130 тс ни на какие мысли не наводит?
НА то что EUS с J-2x может вывести на НОО 6 тонн больше, при увеличении заправки аж на 50 тонн. Только нужны ли эти лишние 6 тонн на НОО

Salo

http://spacenews.com/everything-we-know-about-ulas-next-rocket/
ЦитироватьEverything We Know about ULA's Next Rocket
by Mike Gruss — March 11, 2015
ULA CEO Tory Bruno standing before the Delta 4 Heavy that launched NASA's Orion capsule on an uncrewed test flight in December. Credit: NASA  
 
WASHINGTON – Tory Bruno, the president and chief executive officer of United Launch Alliance, the government's primary launch services provider, has been dribbling out details on the company's next-generation rocket for weeks.
A formal unveiling of the rocket concept that will eventually replace ULA's Atlas 5 and Delta 4 launchers is planned for mid-April at the annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
In the meantime, Bruno will be taking questions fr om Reddit users at 7:00 p.m. EDT Thursday as part of the website's Ask Me Anything series. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk did Ask Me Anything in January.
Below is a primer of what we already know about the new system

What will the new system be called?
Bruno refers to the new rocket as the Next Generation Launch System or NGLS, but the formal name of the rocket has not yet been decided. The company has received about 300 suggestions for names fr om ULA employees. That list will be winnowed down and users online will be able to vote for a winner, which will be announced at Space Symposium the week of April 13.

What engines will NGLS use?
Bruno has said ULA is planning on using the BE-4, which is being developed by Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, in partnership with ULA, as the main engine.
If that engine falls behind in development, ULA has a backup plan and could use the AR-1 proposed by Aerojet Rocketdyne. ULA expects to decide in 2016 or 2017 which of the two engines to continue to develop, Bruno has said.

What's the latest on the BE-4?
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, is notoriously secretive. In January, Bruno tweeted that "Blue Origin just finished a very successful powerpack test series at subscale."

What's the latest on the upper stage?
This is one area Bruno has kept close to the vest. "We have very exciting plans for the upper stage," he said on Twitter. ULA has long worked with XCOR on a liquid-hydrogen concept. ULA is also working with Aerojet on an upper stage engine, Bruno confirmed. But in a recent interview with SpaceNews he also said other companies are involved in upper stage work.

What about the rest of the rocket?
Bruno told spaceflightinsider.com that ULA is developing the first stage, followed by the upper stage and then other subystems. "We have just started wrapping up some of those trades," he said.

When will NGLS launch?
Bruno has said repeatedly the first flight is expected in 2019 if all goes as planned. The certification necessary to launch Air Force satellites would take several years.

Where will NGLS launch?
ULA's plan is to downsize from the five launch pads it maintains between Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to just one pad at each location. Bruno said the company is still completing the trade studies on the infrastructure it would need, but has informed the Air Force of its long term plans.

Wh ere will ULA build NGLS?
Not clear. But Bruno told the Decatur Daily that "Blue Origin is off right now with our team doing studies ... on wh ere that facility should be, and I can tell you that Alabama and certainly the Decatur area is within the (area) that's being looked at right now. But I don't know what the answer will be."

Who is paying for NGLS-related development activities?
Bruno told SpaceNews that between Aerojet-Rocketdyne, Blue Origin and ULA, the three companies have "identified" $1 billion in private investment.

Will NGLS replace the company's current rockets, the Atlas 5 and Delta 4?
Eventually, yes. ULA hopes to phase out the Atlas 5, in large part, because of a Russian engine known as the RD-180 that powers the rocket's first stage.
The company also has told the Air Force it plans to phase out all but the heavy-lift version of its Delta 4 rocket as early as 2018 and will continue building the Delta 4 Heavy as long as its Air Force customer desires.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Apollo13

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=78789

ЦитироватьReusable rocket elements will likely be part of the Next Generation Launch System (NGLS) being unveiled by United Launch Alliance (ULA) at the 31st National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs April 13-16.



The NGLS will mark the first major challenge to SpaceX reusable Falcon rocket development and could involve the downrange recovery and reuse of engines alone, as opposed to the SpaceX design that uses 30 percent of its propellant load to flyback the entire first stage to the launch site.

The NGLS objective to completely replace the Atlas-V and Delta-IV designs in the coming years is driving the development of three new U.S. liquid rocket engines to serve all the missions envisioned "from LEO to Pluto", said Tory Bruno, ULA president and chief executive officer.


NGLS возможно будет частично многоразовой с повторным использованием двигателей. 

ЦитироватьThe current cost of an Atlas-V launch is $164 million, while a Delta-IV Heavy costs $389 million.

che wi

ЦитироватьChris B - NSF ‏@NASASpaceflight  2m ago

ULA employees have been asked to vote between "Eagle", "Freedom" and "GalaxyOne" for the name of the NGLS.

Apollo13

Цитироватьche wi пишет:
ЦитироватьChris B - NSF ‏@NASASpaceflight 2m ago

ULA employees have been asked to vote between "Eagle", "Freedom" and "GalaxyOne" for the name of the NGLS.
Как-то уныло. :(