Antares (Taurus II)

[Lamort]

По поводу малой численности персонала SpaceX:
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/1206-demise-gems-cost-orbital-jobs.html

WASHINGTON — The cancellation of NASA's Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer (GEMS) X-ray telescope mission could cost up to 150 Orbital Sciences Corp. employees their jobs and may force the Dulles, Va.-based satellite and launch vehicle manufacturer to retire its reliable but underbooked Pegasus XL rocket.

"The jobs are at risk," Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski said June 13. "We'll definitely try to roll people onto other programs, but [layoffs are] definitely one possibility."

The 150 vulnerable jobs amount to 9 percent of Orbital's 1,700-person Northern Virginia work force. Orbital employs 3,800 nationwide, including a large Arizona presence. [/size]

"Объективный любитель космонавтики" Salo получает удовольствие поливая успешно развивающуюся ракетно-космическую фирму SpaceX.
 "Образ врага" человеку нужен как воздух.

[Salo]

"Объективный любитель космонавтики" Salo получает удовольствие поливая успешно развивающуюся ракетно-космическую фирму SpaceX.
 "Образ врага" человеку нужен как воздух.

Вы маскофил или масколог? :wink:

[Lamort]

"Объективный любитель космонавтики" Salo получает удовольствие поливая успешно развивающуюся ракетно-космическую фирму SpaceX.
 "Образ врага" человеку нужен как воздух.

Вы маскофил или масколог? :wink:

Обломайтесь, - мне идеологически не нравится то, что делает SpaceX, но они умеют работать.

[Salo]

Начните с себя! :wink:

[Lamort]

Начните с себя! :wink:

Стареете вы, и дуреете по-помаленьку.

[Salo]

Вам дуреть уже просто некуда. :wink:

[Salo]

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jun/HQ_C12-027_NLS_II_mod.html

CONTRACT RELEASE : C12-027
 
NASA Adds Orbital's Antares To Launch Services II Contract[/size:680edeab16]
 
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has modified its NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract with Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., to add the Antares launch vehicle, formerly known as Taurus II, for future missions.

The NLS II on-ramp provision provides an opportunity annually for launch service providers not presently under NLS II contract to compete for future missions, and allows launch service providers already under contract to introduce launch vehicles not currently on their NLS II contracts, such as Antares.

NLS II contracts are multiple award, indefinite delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with ordering periods through June 2020. The contracts provide for a minimum capability of delivering agency payloads weighing approximately 550 pounds or more to a minimum 124-mile-high circular orbit with a launch inclination of 28.5 degrees. The launch service providers also may offer a range of vehicles to NASA to meet higher payload mass and orbit requirements.

These contracts support the goals and objectives of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and Office of the Chief Technologist. Under the contract, NASA also can provide launch services to other government agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Launch Services Program Office at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for program management.

[Salo]

http://www.orbital.com/Antares/


Orbital Antares Team Conducts Another AJ26 Engine Test

June 2012

The Orbital, Aerojet and NASA team conducted a successful test at the NASA Stennis Space Center in a firing of an AJ26 engine that had undergone hot fire testing previously. Among several objectives, the test allowed the team to collect additional engine data in advance of the planned Antares stage one hot fire test planned for later this summer at the Wallops Island, VA launch site in which the entire stage one core, with two AJ 26 engines, will be test fired. (NASA photo)[/size]




US Senator Mikulski Tours Wallops Island Facilities

June 2012

Orbital personnel supported a visit by Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland on Monday, June 25, who was at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility during a oversight tour of the facility Sen. Mikulski toured the launch pad, which is fully built and is being certified as safe and fully functional by a team of NASA, Orbital and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) representatives and was briefed on the progress being made toward completing the certification of the launch complex from which Orbital's cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station will originate. MARS is responsible for the construction and operation of the launch pad complex.

Orbital also briefed the Senator on the company's preparedness for carrying out a test launch of the Antares rocket and the demonstration cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station in the third and fourth quarters of 2012, respectively. These flight milestones will be the culmination of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) joint research and development program that was initiated between NASA and Orbital in late 2008. (NASA photo)

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15457.msg927514#msg927514

antonioe пишет:

AFAIK: static firing in mid-Aug, test flight in mid- to late-September, then D-1 in mid-December. The static firing uses a different stage 1 than either the test flight or ORB D-1 (no need to refurb the static fire asset.)

[instml]

Virginia Spaceport Poised To Turn Pad Over to Orbital This Month

WASHINGTON — The outgoing head of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority said the group is on track to hand off a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Wallops Island, Va., to Orbital Sciences Corp. this month.

Handing the pad over to Orbital would finally enable the Dulles, Va.-based rocket and satellite builder to begin flight demonstrations of its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo module, the vehicles Orbital will use to fulfill a $1.9 billion NASA contract to fly cargo to the international space station.

"The last big test, and we hope to do that this week as soon as we get authorization to proceed from the range, is a flow test for the liquid oxygen," Billie Reed, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority's executive director, said July 10. "That's the last thing on our list [before pad turnover] besides doing the final tweaks and the punch-list items for the things you find during testing."

In the flow test, tanks and fuel lines at MARS's Pad 0-A will be flooded with liquid oxygen, the oxidizer that will be used by Antares, to ensure that they can contain and transfer the supercooled liquid. Reed said some liquid-oxygen tests have already started. "Our storage tank is pretty much almost full" of the cryogenic fluid, he said.

Besides finishing these fluid tests, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority also needs a safety certification from NASA, which operates the Wallops Flight Facility where MARS and its three launch pads are located.

Reed, who is stepping down July 31, said the certification "should be wrapping up as well, if not this week then certainly early in the next."

That schedule tracks with NASA's plans, which call for pad turnover "later this month," agency spokesman Keith Koehler said July 11.

Orbital is more than a year and a half behind schedule in flying its first cargo resupply mission for NASA and has blamed the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority for pad construction and certification delays at MARS.

Antares' first cargo run to the space station, a demonstration flight Orbital has to complete before it can begin flying off the eight resupply missions NASA awarded in 2008, is scheduled for December. That demo, similar to the mission Space Exploration Technologies Corp., completed in May, will be preceded by Antares' maiden flight in September and a hold-down test of the Antares first stage in August, Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski said.

Orbital will update its flight schedule July 19 as part of its second-quarter earnings report, Beneski said July 9.

By the time Antares flies, Reed will no longer be running the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority. State officials announced in June that he will be replaced come August by Dale Nash, the current chief executive officer of the Alaska Aerospace Corp., which oversees the Kodiak Launch Complex that Orbital has used twice for Minotaur 4 launches. Reed said Nash beat out a field of 40 candidates for the job.

Reed will remain involved with the authority, which he has led since its establishment in 1995, as a consultant.

"I'm not going anywhere," Reed said. "I'm not ready to walk out the door."

Restructured Authority

Replacing Reed with Nash is only one of the changes the authority will make this year.

Per legislation signed by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) in April, the authority's board of directors will be trimmed down to nine members from the current 13. The legislation also removed a requirement that the aerospace industry have a vote on the board. Currently, Jeffrey Windland, an Orbital vice president and assistant treasurer, holds a seat.

Technically, Windland's term, and the terms of other board members, ran out July 2. However, McDonnell has yet to appoint a new board. Until he does, the old board will remain in place, Reed said.

Reed said he expects a new board to be appointed "in the next month or so."

The Virginia Department of Aviation referred requests for comment about the status of the authority's board to Matt Strader, Virginia's Assistant Secretary of Transportation. Strader could not immediately be reached for comment.

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120711-va-spaceport-turn-pad-over.html

[Salo]

http://www.orbital.com/Antares/

Updated COTS and CRS Schedules
July 2012

Orbital updated its COTS and CRS operational schedules, with plans to achieve four major operational milestones within the next year. They are as listed below:

 Late August/Early September 2012 - Antares First-Stage Static Fire Test at Wallops
 October 2012 - Antares Test Flight for COTS
 December 2012 - COTS Demonstration Mission to ISS*
 First quarter 2013 - CRS Mission #1 to ISS*

*Dates are subject to coordination with NASA's ISS cargo delivery schedule.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120719-antares-further-delays.html

Thu, 19 July, 2012
Orbital's Antares Rocket in for Further Delays

By Peter B. de Selding

 Orbital's Antares first stage is being transported to the launch pad at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Va., for check fit operations. Credit: NASA photo by P. Black
 Orbital's Antares first stage is being transported to the launch pad at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Va., for check fit operations. Credit: NASA photo by P. Black Enlarge Image

 PARIS — Satellite and rocket builder Orbital Sciences Corp. on July 19 said its Antares rocket had encountered six or seven weeks of developmental delays and will not conduct its inaugural demonstration flight until late September or early October, with a second launch — this time carrying the Cygnus cargo vehicle to the international space station — likely in mid-December.

 Dulles, Va.-based Orbital also said it spent $2.1 million in the three months ending June 30 on legal and other professional services fees related to a major acquisition that ultimately was not consummated because it was too expensive.

 In a conference call with investors, Orbital Chief Financial Officer Garrett E. Pierce said the acquisition, had it occurred, "was a major transaction [that] would have had an impact across the company." He declined to say more beyond adding that a purchase only creates value "at the right price."

 Industry officials had long speculated that Orbital would be in the hunt to purchase Space Systems/Loral, a builder of large telecommunications satellites whose product line has only a few overlaps with Orbital's commercial satellite business, which specializes in smaller spacecraft.

 Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, Calif., was purchased in late June by MDA Corp. of Canada for about $1.1 billion.

 In the conference call, Orbital Chief Executive David W. Thompson said the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which is managing construction of the Antares launch pad at Wallops Island, Va., had encountered "a few unexpected obstacles in recent weeks," pushing the Antares development and qualification schedule into fall.

 The Antares launch pad, Thompson said, will be certified for operations by Aug. 1 — several weeks later than what Orbital expected in its previous financial upd ate in April.

 The first stage of the Antares rocket will be placed on the pad for a hot-fire test to occur in late August or early September. About a month later — by early October — the full Antares is scheduled to conduct a demonstration flight without the Cygnus capsule. Thompson said this part of the schedule remained tight, despite the delays, and could still slip further given the program's current development status.

 Assuming the hot-fire test and demonstration flight go smoothly and on time, an Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus capsule will be ready for flight by mid-December.

 Orbital is under contract to NASA to deliver cargo to the international space station under two separate contracts. The first, called the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, is designed to prove the Antares/Cygnus capability with the demonstration flight and the first Cygnus cargo delivery. This is a cost-sharing contract in which NASA is paying about $188 million, with Orbital contributing a similar amount.

 The second NASA contract, called Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) and valued at $1.9 billion, calls for Orbital to make eight Antares/Cygnus flights to the space station to deliver a total of 20,000 kilograms of supplies over several years.

 Thompson said the Antares and Cygnus development programs have been completed except for their demonstrations on the launch pad. The delays in recent months have been related to the Wallops Island launch complex.

 Orbital reported that for the three months ending June 30, revenue was up 6 percent, to $371.3 million. The biggest contributor to the increase was the company's Advanced Space Programs division, which includes the CRS contract.

 Pierce said an increase of $33 million in CRS revenue from NASA was the main driver of the division's improved performance, which was up 29 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

 The company's Satellites and Space Systems division, which includes government and commercial satellites, reported a 6 percent decline in revenue, to $130.1 million, for the three months ending June 30. Thompson said a decline in revenue from commercial geostationary-orbiting telecommunications satellites, which had been expected, was the main reason for the drop.

 But if this division's revenue was down, its operating profit was up substantially, to 8.1 percent of revenue.

 Orbital delivered two commercial satellites during the quarter, an unusually large output for a company that typically books no more than four such satellites a year. In the case of these two satellites, Thompson said, Orbital had se t aside reserves out of concern that the technologies in the satellites, and the terms of the contract, could force Orbital to spend more than expected to complete the work.

 In the end, he said, both programs were completed without consuming the management reserve, helping profitability.

 Orbital is scheduled to deliver two commercial satellites between July and September, but Thompson cautioned that the company is not yet ready to promise another quarter of 8 percent operating margins for its satellite business.

 Orbital's Launch Vehicles division, meanwhile, reported revenue of $126.3 million during the quarter, down 5.2 percent because of lower launch vehicle and missile-defense activity.

[instml]

РН готова, ПН готова, старт не готов

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_08_01_2012_p04-02-481972.xml

Rocketry Seen Hitting Development Limits
By Guy Norris
Source: Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

August 01, 2012

ATLANTA — Progress in new U.S. launch systems has slowed because rocket technology has virtually reached its limits and the time is ripe for the privately funded development of an all-new, liquid-fueled engine in the 500,000-lb.-thrust class, according to Antonio Elias, head of advanced programs at Orbital Sciences Corp.

Speaking at the Joint Propulsion Conference here, Elias says the physics of chemical rocket propulsion makes a Moore's Law-type improvement rate impossible for engine development. "What makes Moore's law possible is that there is tremendous headroom in the fundamental physics of micro-electronics. We have several flips to go before we start hitting the uncertainty principle."

Elias adds that when it comes to launch vehicles there are two main measures of progress: specific impulse (ISP), which rates overall rocket efficiency, and mass fraction, which is the mass of the vehicle's propellant divided by the total mass of the rocket. "We have reached 98% to 99% in both areas in rocketry."

Compared to the rapid rate of apparent progress in other technologies, particularly consumer electronics, the pace of rocket technology improvement seems sluggish at best. "That's what the public doesn't understand. They don't see us advancing at the same rate," Elias says.

Fr om a new engine perspective, he adds that growing signs of an uptick in demand for a medium-lift vehicle are creating "a number of healthy opportunities in the Delta 2 class or lower end of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). However, we have lost a bit of hope that the U.S. government will put a priority on developing new liquid rockets, so private industry will have to develop one," he suggests.

Proposing a target thrust of around 500,000 lb., Elias says the dwindling number of current-production engines in the thrust bracket makes such a new development potentially viable. On the solid motor side the ATK-made Castor, Orion and space shuttle heritage-derived solid rocket boosters provide lim ited options. "You can cluster Castor 120s, and nobody can beat solids for simplicity. The disadvantage is how many can you stack? You could use elements of the space shuttle solid booster and a three-segment SSRB has performance equal to a Delta 2. With five segments you have performance in the upper range of the EELV," he says. However, Elias adds there are inherent difficulties associated with ground infrastructure to support SSRB assembly, and adds the economics for using solids could become challenging as applications become nonreusable.

[Seerndv]

Плач по прогрессу в РД?
Он ничего не знает про ацетам! :lol:

[Salo]

Интервью руководителя ОАО «НПО Энергомаш» В.Л. Солнцева, «Новости космонавтики» №8 2012:
http://www.npoenergomash.ru/netcat_files/File/Solncev.pdf

Мы также разработали модификацию РД-193 для использования на легкой ракете «Союз-2.1В» и экспортный вариант, который предлагается для носителя Antares компании Orbital Sciences Corporation (OCS).

[Salo]

http://www.orbital.com/Antares/

Multiple Antares Rocket Components Being Readied for Flight Operations at Wallops Island

July 2012

Major systems of our Antares medium-class launch vehicle are approaching the final stages of processing and assembly at the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) at Wallops Island, VA. The three Antares first stage cores shown in the photo below will be used for the key upcoming COTS program milestones, including the static fire test, the Antares Test Flight and the COTS demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
At the far right of the photo, the complete first stage for the static fire test is already aboard the transporter vehicle that will roll it out to the pad, located approximately one mile from the HIF. At the far left of the photo (in the background) is the Antares rocket that will carry out the Test Flight. The first and second stages are already mated, with the Cygnus mass simulator and fairing to be integrated during the month before launch. The Cygnus mass simulator is seen in a vertical configuration at the left foreground of the photo. Finally, in the center of the photo, is the first stage of the Antares rocket that will carry out the COTS demonstration mission to the ISS. It is being readied for engine integration. The nozzle of an AJ26 engine can be seen in the left foreground.[/size:1136c34e95]

[Salo]

http://www.orbital.com/Antares/

Map of the Wallops Island, VA Launch Facilities

July 2012

In preparation for Orbital's cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station, which will use our Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, significant launch site development has taken place at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern shore of Virginia. The aerial map below shows the location of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's (MARS) Pad 0A, fr om which our COTS and CRS missions will launch, as well as the Horizontal Integration Facility (pictured in the previous entry), and Building H-100 Payload Processing Facility on the Wallops main base wh ere Cygnus will be integrated prior to mating with the Antares rocket. The legend on the lower right of the map details all of the facilities that Orbital will utilize in support of the COTS and CRS missions (listed in red). Download a PDF of the map:
http://www.orbital.com/Antares/files/Antares_Launch_Site_Map.pdf

[Frontm]

Если пуск Союз-2.1в перенесут, "Эти" тоже свой ОПЯТЬ сдвинут?

[Salo]

У них другой конкурент. Пуск Союза-2-1В для них скорее желателен.