NGLS - Next-Generation Launch System от ULA

Автор Salo, 23.02.2015 09:43:06

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silentpom

ну а чем по возможностям 401й атлас отличается от фалкона?

Антон

Цитироватьsilentpom пишет:
ну а чем по возможностям 401й атлас отличается от фалкона?
ПН несколько меньше, а речь то о сегменте от 401 и вниз

silentpom

ну деньги-то основные гребут не там. пусть всякие минотавры побираются

Apollo13

ЦитироватьАнтон пишет:
Маску там тоже нечем брать, получаются сдают сегмент Орбиталу
Я вот думаю Иксы скорее сертифицируют Хэви, чем Орбитал сертифицирует Антарес.

Salo

Сертифицировать смогут только для NASA.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Apollo13

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
Сертифицировать смогут только для NASA.
Кстати да. Тем более Орбиталу нагрузки с Атласа не светят.

Антон

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
Сертифицировать смогут только для NASA.
Кстати да. Тем более Орбиталу нагрузки с Атласа не светят.
ну может у них под военные нагрузки будет версия с НК- 33  ;)

Получается весьма широкая ниша военных нагрузок выше возможностей Минотавров и ниже возможностей Фалькона 9 (что примерно соответствует нише для нашего Союза) с уходом Дельты 2 и 4 остается совершенно пустой.

Искандер

ЦитироватьАнтон пишет:
ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
Сертифицировать смогут только для NASA.
Кстати да. Тем более Орбиталу нагрузки с Атласа не светят.
ну может у них под военные нагрузки будет версия с НК- 33

Получается весьма широкая ниша военных нагрузок выше возможностей Минотавров и ниже возможностей Фалькона 9 (что примерно соответствует нише для нашего Союза) с уходом Дельты 2 и 4 остается совершенно пустой.

Всё гораздо проще - решается недоливом F-9.
С учетом многоразовости первой ступени, в теории, цена пуска будет конкурентной.
Aures habent et non audient, oculos habent et non videbunt

silentpom

Дельта 2 не дешевле фалкона-9, ниши у нее уже нет

Salo

#129
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

Обещают цену ниже $100 млн.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

fagot

ЦитироватьАнтон пишет:
Получается весьма широкая ниша военных нагрузок выше возможностей Минотавров и ниже возможностей Фалькона 9 (что примерно соответствует нише для нашего Союза) с уходом Дельты 2 и 4 остается совершенно пустой.
И много ли в этой нише есть реальных ПН?

Salo

http://spacenews.com/from-atlas-to-vulcan-34-years-of-rocket-evolution-in-1-image/
ЦитироватьFrom Atlas to Vulcan: 34 Years of Rocket Evolution in 1 Image
by Mike Gruss — July 30, 2015

Tory Bruno, the president and chief executive of United Launch Alliance, tweeted this infographic July 29 depicting the Vulcan rocket's Atlas heritage. Credit: ULA.  
 
Tory Bruno, the president and chief executive of United Launch Alliance, took to Twitter July 29 to discuss the heritage of his company's new rocket, known as Vulcan, and unveil the infographic above.
"An effective way to manage risk is to incrementally add new technologies to an existing platform," Bruno said in a follow-up tweet. "Transforming the rocket in steps."
With a new infographic, Bruno showed how Vulcan's heritage dates back to 1990 and draws from Lockheed Martin's Atlas 1, 2 and 2A. The chart also depicts how ULA envisions Vulcan evolving through 2024, when it will take advantage of reusable rocket engines.
This evolution includes the addition of ACES, a new upper stage known as the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, as well as a new first stage featuring the methane-fueled BE-4 engine, which is being developed by Blue Origin of Kent, Washington. ULA is also working with Aerojet Rocketdyne on the AR-1 engine, in case the Blue Origin-funded BE-4 runs into developmental issues.
Bruno unveiled the first details about Vulcan in a series of interviews earlier this year and then announced additional details during a grand unveiling in April at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Vulcan is expected to pick up much of ULA's medium-class launch market beginning around 2021, but the move means the end of ULA's current workhorse rocket, the Atlas 5.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Seerndv

"Вулкана" ещё нет, а эволюция  до него уже есть  :D
Свободу слова Старому !!!
Но намордник не снимать и поводок укоротить!
Все могло быть еще  хуже (С)

silentpom

вершина эволюции, хе хе хе

Salo

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/17/boeing-rejects-bid-to-buy-ula-as-engine-race-heats-up/
ЦитироватьBoeing rejects bid to buy ULA as engine race heats up       
Posted on September 17, 2015 by Stephen Clark

File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Credit: ULA
 
Boeing said Wednesday it has turned down an offer from Aerojet Rocketdyne to buy United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that operates the Atlas and Delta rocket fleets.
The decision keeps ULA's plan to sel ect a new engine for the company's next-generation Vulcan rocket some time next year. Aerojet Rocketdyne and Blue Origin are in the running to be the engine supplier.
The unsolicited offer, reportedly worth $2 billion, was made by the company that builds rocket engines for ULA's Delta 4 launcher and Atlas 5 upper stage.
"With regard to reports of an unsolicited proposal for ULA, it is not something we seriously entertained for a number of reasons," said Todd Blecher, a spokesperson for Boeing's defense and space division, in an email to Spaceflight Now. "Boeing is committed to ULA and its business, and to continued leadership in all aspects of space, as evidenced by the agreement announcement last week with Blue Origin."
ULA says it prefers an engine made by Blue Origin, a company founded by Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos, to power the company's next-generation Vulcan rocket. Aerojet Rocketdyne is working on its own engine called the AR1, but ULA officials say its development is two years behind Blue Origin's.
Officials announced an agreement Sept. 10 to expand Blue Origin's engine production capability to ramp up for the Vulcan program.
"Under the agreement, Blue Origin will expand its existing BE-4 production capability already established at its Kent, Washington, development facility to accommodate the initial production rate needed for the Vulcan launch vehicle," said Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson.
The BE-4 engine in development by Blue Origin is nearing its critical design review, a milestone in which the powerplant's design will be frozen and managers will deem it ready for hardware production.
The AR-1 engine by Aerojet Rocketdyne is closing in on its preliminary design review, Bruno wrote in a post to his Twitter account.
Both use staged-combustion designs, a more efficient class of rocket engines not currently manufactured in the United States.
United Launch Alliance's corporate parents are approving quarterly tranches of funding for the Vulcan rocket, eyeing concerns about the future supply of Russian-made RD-180 engines for the Atlas 5 rocket's first stage booster.
Under pressure from newcomer SpaceX, ULA is aiming for launch costs of less than $100 million per Vulcan flight, and the company plans to roll out a scheme in the 2020s to capture booster engines after launch for refurbishment and reuse. An upgraded upper stage to replace the Centaur rocket is also in ULA's long-term plans.
First will come a basic Vulcan configuration relying on the same Centaur stage, and similar solid rocket boosters and payload shrouds from the Atlas 5. The new item will be a redesigned first stage core with an American-made engine.
ULA's designers are working on two versions of the company's Atlas 5 replacement rocket: One with at least a 5.1-meter (16.7-foot) diameter core stage with two BE-4 main engines, and another with a slimmer 3.8-meter (12.5-foot) wide first stage with a pair of AR1 powerplants.

File photo of a launch of ULA's Delta 4 rocket. The Vulcan first stage in its BE-4 engine configuration will have tanks the same diameter as the hydrogen-fueled Delta 4. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images
 
The wider stage, based on tanks flown on ULA's Delta 4 rocket, is needed to accommodate methane fuel for the BE-4 engines, which each generate about 550,000 pounds of thrust at full throttle. The AR1 burns rocket-grade kerosene fuel, with higher density than methane, and can be flown with a booster stage the same diameter as the Atlas 5, Bruno said.
But the version with AR1 engines would feature a lengthened core stage from the tanks flying on the Atlas 5, and a feed line for liquid oxygen coursing down the center of the rocket. The Atlas 5's liquid oxygen fuel plumbing runs outside the first stage to reach the rocket's RD-180 engine.
ULA has only released artists concepts and promotional materials for the Vulcan configuration with BE-4 engines.
Blue Origin founder Bezos told reporters this week his company's engineers have worked on the BE-4 engine for more than three years. It is an evolution of Blue Origin's BE-3 engine, which powers the company's suborbital New Shepard launcher designed for space tourism.
"The BE-4 engine has a lot of unique characteristics, technically, but I think the most unique feature of the BE-4 engine is that it's fully funded," Bezos said. "It's not something you see with rocket engine programs very often."
With a net worth of nearly $50 billion, according to Forbes, Bezos established Blue Origin in 2000 and has personally funded the bulk of the company's development projects.
"Our approach on this is very simple, which is we stay heads down focused on the technology," Bezos said Tuesday. "We're going to build the best 21st century engine that we can for ULA. Ultimately, they'll make the decision about what they want to do, but we're going to work our butts off to give them a great engine."
Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson said in April the BE-4 engine's development will finish in 2017 after full-scale testing in late 2016 at the company's West Texas test facility. That schedule is in line with ULA's plans to conduct the first test launch of the Vulcan rocket in 2019.
Tests of the engine's powerpack and propellant injectors are ongoing, Meyerson said.
More than 60 staged-combustion tests of the BE-4 engine are already in the books, Bezos said in a statement in the Sept. 10 announcement on BE-4 engine production in Washington.
Bezos visited Cape Canaveral on Tuesday to announce plans to set up a commercial rocket factory and launch pad for Blue Origin's own orbital launch vehicle, which will fly with BE-4 engines and could eventually be a competitor for ULA's Vulcan.
He did not disclose details on Blue Origin's launcher.
"If you look at the reliability track record that (ULA) has had, it's truly extraordinary, and when you look at some of the national security payloads, that is the No. 1 factor," Bezos said. "Space is pretty big. There are a lot of opportunities, and there's room for multiple winners. We're going to work our butts off to make sure that the BE-4 engine is the best possible engine for United Launch Alliance."

Artist's concept of ULA's Vulcan rocket. Credit: ULA
 
Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 engine is two years behind Blue Origin's current schedule.
Julie Van Kleeck, the company's vice president of space programs, told Spaceflight Now in an interview that ULA and Aerojet Rocketdyne submitted a joint proposal to the U.S. Air Force, which plans to dole out a combined $160 million to multiple contractor teams to advance work on new U.S. rocket engines.
The Air Force is expected in the coming weeks to sel ect up to four winners fr om the companies that submitted bids, a list industry officials expect to include Blue Origin, Orbital ATK, and perhaps SpaceX, which is working on its own methane-fed Raptor rocket engine for a new series of rockets bigger than the existing Falcon family.
Congress wants the Air Force to cease use of the RD-180 engine by 2019, but military leaders say that schedule is tight. There is disagreement between the House and the Senate on how many RD-180 engines can be used for future military launches, with the Senate holding to a lower number.
The disparity has raised complaints fr om the Air Force and ULA that limiting RD-180 engine use would give SpaceX control of the military launch market, which has been dominated by ULA since the merger of the Atlas and Delta rocket programs in 2006. The Air Force policy's is to have two independent rockets to loft the military's most critical satellite payloads, and ULA has announced it plans to retire the single core "medium" version of its Delta 4 launcher — which has all U.S. propulsion — in 2018 or 2019 because it is not cost-competitive with the Falcon 9 or Atlas 5.
"We'll be providing an offering in conjunction with ULA," Van Kleeck said in August. "We're on schedule. We're investing pretty heavily in the engine right now, and we're on schedule to get to a preliminary design review."
Van Kleeck said testing of sub-scale engine hardware is going well, with some components set to undergo a full mission duty cycle test this winter. Aerojet Rocketdyne is working on the AR1 engine with internal company funds, but the engine's planned readiness date in 2019 hinges on outside support.
"We're still looking to qualify the engine and certify it in 2019," she said.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

che wi

Будут использовать ТТУ от Orbital ATK, а не от Aerojet

United Launch Alliance Selects Orbital ATK to Provide Solid Boosters for Atlas V and Vulcan Launch Vehicles
http://www.orbitalatk.com/news-room/release.asp?prid=74

ЦитироватьCentennial, Colorado and Dulles, Virginia 22 September 2015 – Today United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Orbital ATK, Inc. (NYSE: OA) announced a long-term strategic partnership in which Orbital ATK will become the sole provider of solid rocket boosters for ULA's Atlas V and Vulcan launch vehicles, effective in 2019 when the new motors are ready for launch.

Спойлер
"As ULA transforms the space lift industry, strong partners such as Orbital ATK are critical to reducing cost, introducing cutting-edge innovation and continuing our focus on mission success," said Tory Bruno, ULA's president and CEO. "We have relied for decades on Orbital ATK's industry leading rocket motor technology, which is ideally suited to support our future rocket launch plans."

Under this partnership, Orbital ATK is investing in the design, development and qualification of two new rocket motors with design similarities to each other that leverage the company's proven solid motor technology. These motors will significantly lower the price to ULA and to the U.S. government. They will be used to support launches of ULA's Atlas V and Vulcan vehicles and will also be commercially available to support other customers.

"With this strategic partnership, ULA and Orbital ATK will offer customers better value and reliable access to space," said David W. Thompson, president and CEO of Orbital ATK. "The capabilities and technology of the newly-merged Orbital ATK enabled us to expand the partnership with ULA to help lower costs and maintain the highest standards of mission assurance."

Development of the new solid rocket boosters will commence immediately to support their introduction on ULA's Atlas V vehicle in late 2018 and on ULA's Vulcan vehicle in mid-2019. Vulcan, ULA's next generation launch vehicle, is anticipated to transform the future of space launch for the government and commercial market, making it more affordable, accessible and commercially available.

"Our ability to deliver critical national security, scientific and commercial satellites into the correct orbit for each mission is filled with risks and challenges, and ULA has delivered every time," said Bruno. "This reliability will continue as we develop the right vehicle with the right team."

The new solid motor booster agreement expands the long-term relationship between ULA and Orbital ATK that already includes the supply of composite structures, nozzles, propellant tanks and booster separation motors for the current versions of Delta IV and Atlas V rockets. In addition, ULA will supply two Atlas rockets to provide launch services for Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft on cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station for NASA in late 2015 and early 2016. Orbital ATK is also developing a fully integrated third stage to launch NASA's Solar Probe Plus mission on ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2018.

ULA has a strong heritage in providing reliable space access for government and commercial entitles under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The EELV program was established by the United States Air Force to provide assured access to space for Department of Defense and other government payloads. The company recently marked the 99th successful one-at-a-time launch since the company was formed in December 2006.
[свернуть]

Grus

ЦитироватьSeerndv пишет:
"Вулкана" ещё нет, а эволюция до него уже есть  :D
Дык, капиталистическое планирование. И там со второй ступенью приключений духа никак не меньше, чем с первой или ускорительной.

Salo

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/10/12/ula-selects-launch-pads-for-new-vulcan-rocket/
ЦитироватьULA selects launch pads for new Vulcan rocket       
Posted on October 12, 2015 by Stephen Clark

ULA chief executive Tory Bruno tweeted this image illustrating the Vulcan rocket's evolution fr om the Atlas rocket family. The Vulcan will use the Atlas 5's current launch pads in Florida and California, according to a senior ULA official. Credit: ULA
 
United Launch Alliance's next-generation Vulcan rocket will lift off from the company's existing Atlas 5 launch facilities in Florida and California, according to the company's Vulcan program manager.
The launch pads at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base will require modifications to accommodate the Vulcan booster, which is wider than the Atlas 5 rocket's existing first stage, said Mark Peller, ULA's Vulcan program manager, at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Peller confirmed Thursday widely-held suspicions that the Vulcan will be based at the Atlas 5's launch pads. ULA chief executive Tory Bruno declined to identify the Vulcan's launch pads in an Oct. 2 meeting with reporters.
"Vulcan will fly out of our heritage Atlas launch pads, so SLC-41 on the East Coast and SLC-3E on the West Coast," Peller said. "They do require a moderate amount of modification to accommodate both the larger Vulcan vehicle and the addition of liquified natural gas propellant distribution capability."
The BE-4 engines tagged to power the Vulcan first stage burn liquified natural gas, similar to methane.
ULA officials say they plan for the Atlas 5 and Vulcan launchers to fly concurrently for several years, with the maiden Vulcan launch expected in 2019 and retirement of the Atlas 5 in the early 2020s.
Launch pads in Florida and California designed for the Delta 4 rocket will remain operational until an upgraded upper stage is ready to fly around 2023, Peller said, allowing ULA to retire the triple-core Delta 4-Heavy rocket. The Delta 4's single-core medium-lift variant will make its final flight around 2019, ULA officials said.
With the final launch of the Delta 2 rocket expected in late 2017 or early 2018, and the phase-out of the Delta 4 family in the early 2020s, ULA will downsize from five active launch pads to two, keeping one facility on each coast for equatorial and polar orbit missions.
Construction crews are building a crew access tower at the Atlas 5's East Coast pad at pad 41, allowing astronauts to board Boeing's commercial CST-100 Starliner spaceship for flights to the International Space Station. Boeing has picked the Atlas 5 as the crew capsule's launcher.

Segments of a new crew access tower are being stacked at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad for future astronaut flights. Credit: NASA/Dmitrios Gerondidakis
 
At Vandenberg on California's Central Coast, Space Launch Complex 3-East is set up for on-site assembly of the Atlas 5 inside a moveable service gantry. Atlas 5s at Cape Canaveral are stacked inside a nearby fixed vertical hangar, then rolled to the launch pad before liftoff.
ULA executives have stressed the importance of reducing ULA's footprint. Bruno said launch pads are the single biggest element of the company's fixed costs and facility costs.
The Vulcan rocket is ULA's answer to market forces brought on by newcomer SpaceX, which sells Falcon rockets at a lower price than Atlas and Delta launchers, and political pressure to end reliance on the Atlas 5's Russian-built RD-180 engines for U.S. national security missions.
The Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture is working on two designs for the next-generation booster: One with at least a 5.1-meter (16.7-foot) diameter core stage with two BE-4 main engines, and another with a slimmer 3.8-meter (12.5-foot) wide first stage with a pair of AR1 powerplants.
The BE-4 engine being developed by Blue Origin, a space established by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is the "primary option" for the Vulcan's main propulsion system, Peller said.
But the company is funding work on Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 engine as a backup option.
Both engines use oxygen-rich staged combustion technology, a technique that minimizes propellant waste during launch. The BE-4 will burn a combination of super-cold liquified natural gas and liquid oxygen, while the AR1 consumes kerosene fuel at room temperature.

Components of Blue Origin's BE-4 engine are being hotfired at the company's West Texas test site. Credit: Blue Origin
 
Either way, the new rocket would use two engines to provide more than a million pounds of total thrust. Ground crews could add up to six strap-on solid rocket boosters from Orbital ATK to lift heavier payloads into space.
"The BE-4 from Blue Origin is our primary option," Peller said. "That's wh ere the majority of our focus is right now going forward. We realize that engine development is very difficult and fraught with risk. We are a very important provider of launch services to our country, and we want to make sure that we continue to provide assured access to our government customers, so we felt it's a prudent step to take to maintain a backup option, and that is the AR1."
ULA officials have said the AR1 engine, which generates 500,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, could be incorporated into a new booster stage based on the Atlas 5 design. The AR1 consumes the same propellant mix — liquid oxygen and refined rocket-grade kerosene — as the RD-180 engine currently affixed to the bottom of Atlas 5s.
"It is not a drop-in replacement but could be accommodated into an AR1 variant of the Vulcan vehicle on the drawing board as well — a little more similar to Atlas than what were doing with the BE-4 Vulcan vehicle," Peller said. "The AR1 engine is going through development, and that team is on track to have their preliminary design review for that engine later this year."
Aerojet Rocketdyne, ULA's current primary engine provider, attempted a $2 billion takeover of ULA in September. Weeks later, ULA sel ected Orbital ATK over Aerojet Rocketdyne as the company's sole supplier of solid rocket boosters.
Once the all-American booster engine is introduced on Vulcan, ULA eyes an upgraded Advanced Common Evolved Stage, or ACES, to replace the Centaur upper stage that has been flying since the 1960s. Engineers plan to begin recovering engine pods fr om the Vulcan rocket for refurbishment and reuse in the 2020s.
Rob Meyerson, president of Blue Origin, said the BE-4 engine is approaching its critical design review, a key development milestone that is often a gate to begin production. Officials have said the BE-4, which Blue Origin started working on in 2011, is on track to be certified for flight by 2017.
Blue Origin announced Sept. 30 the completion of more than 100 staged combustion tests of the BE-4 engine. The firings at Blue Origin's West Texas test site included a representative BE-4 preburner and a regeneratively-cooled thrust chamber using multiple full-scale injector elements, the company said in a statement.
The engine on the test stand us a sub-scale BE-4 generating about 20,000 pounds of thrust, Meyerson said.
"It demonstrates all of the injector elements," he said. "We're demonstrating performance, we're demonstrating combustion stability, we're demonstrating the manufacturing techniques we need to build those injectors and those chambers.
"The powerpack itself is the other part of the testing," Meyerson said. "The powerpack includes the main pump, the boost pump, the preburner, and all the main valves on the engine, and we've been testing that extensively as well."
Meyerson said the BE-4 engine is also intended to power Blue Origin's own unnamed orbital launch vehicle scheduled to fly by the end of the decade. Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard booster, designed for space tourist and research flights, uses a smaller hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine.
"We didn't go into this 10 years ago with the idea that we want to build engines for the community," Meyerson said. "We went into this going to build technologies to support New Shepard, and those engines happen to be very unique in the industry, and one-of-a-kind capabilities that can support multuple launch companies."
The most unique trait of the BE-4 engine is its funding pipeline, according to Meyerson.
"I emphasize that the BE-4 is fully funded because a rocket engine that's available for others to buy, that's a new trajectory," Meyerson said. "Jeff Bezos has stepped in and invested in the BE-4. ULA has come in and made an investment as well for application on the Vulcan, and I think that's unprecedented."
ULA chief executive Tory Bruno said the AR1 engine is about two years behind the BE-4, and managers will decide on an engine by the end of 2016.
"We see that (decision) as some time next year, probably late next year," Peller said. "We're monitoring the risk burn down with our primary option, and with more progress both on our side with the booster and with Blue Origin, we'll make that decision."
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"