Orbital to replace Antares engine, RD-180 engine decision update

[DocM]

Odds are the ATK Dark Knight solid will be used by Orbital for Antares. It uses the Shuttle SRB diameter, is composite cased and is also being used in the Stratolaunch Thunderbolt.

http://www.spacenews.com/article/financial-report/41204gencorp-says-aj-26-test-failure-cost-company-135-million

PARIS GenCorp Inc., parent company of rocket-engine builder Aerojet Rocketdyne, on July 9 said the failure of an AJ-26 engine during a test firing in May cost the company $13.5 million in lost sales and higher costs for the six months ending May 31.

The incident forced Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. to delay the launch of its Antares rocket, which uses two AJ-26 engines as its first stage, to determine whether the test-stand failure indicated a wider issue with the AJ-26. The company has since cleared the AJ-26 engine now on the Antares rocket and is proceeding with the launch, carrying an unmanned cargo freighter to the international space station.

Rancho Cordova, California-based GenCorp, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said that as of May 31 it had eight more AJ-26 engines to deliver to Orbital under its current contract.

Orbital officials have said the company is likely to use ATK-supplied motors for Antares for the long term. Orbital is merging with ATKs aerospace and defense business in a deal expected to close by the end of the year.

It is unclear whether a new Orbital-GenCorp contract for an interim supply of AJ-26 engines will be signed.

In the filing, GenCorp also said it had exercised an option to extend, by three months, the deadline by which either GenCorp or United Technologies Corp. could cancel their agreement relating to Russias RD-180 engine, which powers the U.S. Atlas 5 rocket used mainly for U.S. government missions.

Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies sold its Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne engine division to GenCorp in a transaction announced in July 2012 and concluded in June 2013. The agreement had included the transfer to GenCorp of United Technologies 50 percent ownership of RD Amross, a joint venture with RD-180 manufacturer NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia, that imports and sells the engines to Atlas 5 maker United Launch Alliance.

The transfer of the RD Amross shares has been awaiting approval by the Russian government since then, and GenCorp had reduced its purchase price of the Rocketdyne division by $55 million as a consequence. United Technologies and GenCorp agreed that either company could cancel the RD Amross transaction starting 12 months after the transactions closure, meaning June 12 of this year.

Either party is also permitted to extend the deadline by as much as a year, in three-month increments. GenCorp said that on May 30 it exercised the first three-month extension, to September 12.

GenCorp did not say whether the current debate about whether Atlas 5 should continue to use a Russian engine given the political tensions with Russia had changed the companys thinking about the RD Amross purchase.

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This whole thing is really crimping Orbital-ATK's plans for Antares.

Turns out going to an ATK solid first stage causes a lot of safety and pad issues at Wallops, if a solid blew the flaming propellant debris and acoustics could impact nearby residences, and going with another Russian engine has obvious problems.

http://www.spacenews.com/article/financial-report/42180aerojet-rocketdyne-takes-loss-on-aj-26-engine-problems

Aerojet Rocketdyne Takes Loss on AJ-26 Engine Problems

WASHINGTON ? The parent company of Aerojet Rocketdyne announced Oct. 10 that it took a $17.5 million loss in its latest fiscal quarter because of issues with the AJ-26 rocket engine that it provides for Orbital Sciences Corp.?s Antares launch vehicle.

Rancho Cordova, California-based GenCorp Inc. reported a net loss in the company?s fiscal third quarter, which ended Aug. 31, of $9.5 million.

In filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the markets closed Oct. 10, the company also reported a net loss for the year to date of $61.8 million.

GenCorp singled out the AJ-26 engine, a refurbished version of the Soviet-era NK-33, as a major reason for the loss. The company said it took pre-tax contract loss of $17.5 million on the program in the latest quarter, and $31.4 million loss on the program for the year to date.

In its SEC filing, GenCorp blamed the loss on ?the cost to repair or replace engines as necessary in light of the previously reported engine test failures,? a likely reference to a May 22 test-stand failure of an AJ-26 engine at the NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The company also cited the costs of increased hardware inspections of engines yet to be delivered, repairs to the test stand and costs associated with delayed engine deliveries.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has a contract with Orbital to provide 20 AJ-26 engines, two of which are used in the first stage of the Antares launch vehicle. Aerojet has delivered 10 of those engines, including the two installed on the Antares scheduled to launch Oct. 24 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, on a resupply mission to the international space station.

Neither Aerojet nor Orbital have disclosed details regarding the cause of the May test failure. Speaking at the 65th International Astronautical Congress in Toronto Sept. 30, Frank Culbertson, executive vice president and general manager of Orbital?s Advanced Programs Group, said investigators had narrowed down the failure to two potential root causes, but did not discuss them. Both potential causes can be screened for during engine inspections, he said.

Repairs to the Stennis test stand, Culbertson said, have been completed, and engine tests are scheduled to resume in October. ?We had to replace a number of components, but everybody worked hard to turn that around so we could get back to testing,? Culbertson said.

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