Orbital Sciences Antares 200 launcher (updates)

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Orbital ATK, Virginia Reach Accord on Pad Repair Bill, Insurance

Repair crews work on Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.

WASHINGTON — Orbital ATK, NASA and the state of Virginia agreed to split a $15 million bill for repairing a launchpad damaged when Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket exploded after lifting off on a NASA cargo mission last October. Orbital ATK also will be required to carry insurance to cover any future damage to the state-owned launch facility.

Orbital ATK, NASA and Virginia will each pay $5 million to get Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, back in working order, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said Aug. 6 . McAuliffe made the announcement at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, alongside Dale Nash, executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, and Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group.

Virginia spent $90 million to build the cryogenic-capable Pad 0A on a land leased from NASA in a corner of the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility. At the time of the Oct. 28 Antares failure, the state-owned facility was not insured, precipitating a spat between the federal government, Virginia, and Orbital ATK over who was responsible for repairs and cleanup costs.

 

 

That hatchet appears to be buried.

“We’ve agreed to share the costs equally, and Orbital will provide launch insurance for Virginia assets, the launchpad and systems,” Nash said in a phone interview after the Aug. 6 announcement. Orbital ATK will pay a “very competitive price” to use the state-owned facilities, Nash added.

Nash declined to quantify Orbital ATK’s per-launch fee, but someone familiar with the negotiations between Virginia and Pad 0A’s only customer said each launch will cost Orbital ATK $1.5 million — unchanged from the figure  the Dulles, Virginia-based company agreed to under a 2012 agreement with the state.

However, it remains unclear if Orbital ATK will have to pay $1.8 million to Virginia for moving the next launch under its NASA Commercial Resupply Services contract to Florida. The company’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft is slated to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral in early December, Orbital ATK Chief Executive David Thompson said on an Aug. 6 earnings call.

Under the 2012 agreement, Orbital ATK gets penalized for moving any NASA cargo launches out of state.

Likewise unclear is the amount of insurance coverage Orbital ATK has extended to Virginia. Nash provided a ballpark estimate in May, when he told SpaceNews the cost of insurance on the open market would exceed the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority’s annual operating budget of $16 million.

More data at the link....

 http://spacenews.com/orbital-atk-virginia-reach-accord-on-pad-repair-bill/

Cheers......

[Draggendrop Veteran]

New engines arrive at Antares rocket launch site

 

File photo of an Antares rocket on its launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: Orbital ATK

The first pair of new Russian main engines for Orbital ATK’s modernized Antares rocket has arrived at the company’s Virginia launch base as engineers prepare to return the commercial booster to flight after a catastrophic failure last year.

The two kerosene-fueled RD-181 engines arrived at Wallops Island, Virginia, in July, according to David Thompson, Orbital ATK’s president and CEO.

 

Orbital ATK officials said the company would redesign the Antares rocket’s first stage and stop using AJ26 main engines originally manufactured for the Soviet Union’s ill-fated N1 moon rocket program. The engines, known as the NK-33 in Russia, were imported to the United States in the 1990s and modified by Aerojet Rocketdyne for flight on U.S. launchers.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden told the space agency’s advisory council in late July that the investigation into last year’s Antares failure was complete and submitted to NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration, which has regulatory responsibility for commercial rocket launches. The report should be released publicly soon, Bolden said.

Orbital ATK purchased at least 20 newly-manufactured RD-181 rocket engines to replace the AJ26. The engines burn the same liquid propellant mixture, minimizing changes to the already-built Antares first stages.

The engine change will give the Antares rocket additional lift capacity, providing a combined 820,000 pounds of thrust at full throttle, more than the twin-engine AJ26 engine configuration could generate.

The RD-181 engine is based on the RD-191 powerplant used on Russia’s new Angara rocket. The single-nozzle engine selected to fly on the Antares rocket is also similar to the dual-nozzle RD-180 engine, which powers United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launcher.

The first shipment of two RD-181 engines arrived at Wallops in July from NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia. All other rocket hardware needed for the next Antares launch will be delivered to Wallops by mid-August, according to Blake Larson, Orbital ATK’s chief operating officer.

“At present, we are in the process of integrating the new engines into the Antares airframe,” Thompson said. “That work is expected to be completed within just the next few days, and then we’ll begin testing, which will continue through the fall. That also represents a significant risk reduction opportunity if things go well.”

Antares rockets are assembled horizontally inside a hangar about a mile north of the launch pad at Wallops.

Thompson said the return-to-flight mission should be ready for takeoff in early 2016 on another resupply flight to the space station. Officials previously said the launch is targeted for March 2016.

But first engineers will transfer the rocket to the Antares launch pad as soon as December for ground tests and a hold-down firing to demonstrate the new RD-181 main engines.

In the meantime, Orbital ATK is preparing a Cygnus cargo craft for launch Dec. 3 aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. Orbital contracted with ULA for the Atlas 5 launch to keep resupply missions going while the Antares booster is grounded.

 

 

 http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/08/10/new-engines-arrive-at-antares-rocket-launch-site/

Cheers.....

 

[DocM]

Hopefully all goes well, but Orbital needs to start looking down the road and develop a Heavy, or at least a 'Heavier,' with a liquid upper stage for more complex missions.

[FloatingFatMan]

Mispost...

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Orbital ATK Orders Second Atlas 5, Leaves Door Open for More

Orbital ATK has ordered a second Atlas 5 rocket (above) to launch its Cygnus cargo tug to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — Orbital ATK has purchased a second Atlas 5 rocket to launch NASA cargo to the International Space Station and could buy a third, the company will announce Aug. 12.

Orbital ATK’s latest Atlas 5 booking is for a mission slated to launch in early 2016, according to a press release slated to hit the wire Aug. 12. The company has already bought one Atlas 5 from Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services to launch its Cygnus cargo tug to ISS from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in early December. The Atlas 5 is built and operated by United Launch Alliance of Denver, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture. Lockheed Martin sells the vehicle commercially.

Orbital ATK is counting on Atlas 5 to help fulfill orders NASA placed in 2008 under a $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract while the company redesigns its Antares rocket following a launch failure yeast October.  Antares exploded moments after liftoff from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island,r Virginia.

 

 

Orbital ATK has attributed the failure to the rocket’s Soviet-heritage AJ-26 main-stage engine, which was imported and refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California.  The rebooted Antares will feature a new main-stage engine, the Russian-made RD-181 from NPO Energomash: the same company that makes Atlas 5’s RD-180 core engine.

Both Atlas 5-launched Cygnus tugs will carry their maximum load of  3,500 kilograms of pressurized cargo, Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group, said in the press release.

Besides the mission to be announced Aug. 12, Orbital ATK will conduct “at least three more CRS missions” in 2016, one of which could be launched by a third Atlas 5, the company said. The new Antares, which features two RD-181 engines, will be ready for launch from Virginia “in early 2016,” the company wrote in its press release.

An Antares hot-fire athe Wallop’s Pad 0A, which is expected to be repaired and ready for operations by Sept. 30, could happen later this year, Orbital ATK said.

Meanwhile, the pressurized cargo module for the Cygnus launching on Atlas 5 in December arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida “earlier this week,” according to the press release. The cargo module will next be integrated with Cygnus’ service module, slated to arrive in early October.

NASA has Orbital ATK under contract for the equivalent of eight cargo flights; The company has completed two.

 http://spacenews.com/orbital-atk-orders-second-atlas-5-leaves-door-open-for-more/

Looks like they are doing what they have to, to complete contractual obligations with the ISS resupply. This can't be cost effective for them.......

[DocM]

Makes one wonder if the RD-181 testing and integration is going as smoothly as they'd like us to think? Or if there are first stage construction problems in Ukraine?

Hmmmmm....

[Unobscured Vision]

Something is afoul here. Just ... it smells like ... ULA's satellite companies in "orbit" ... hmm ... interesting, isn't it? Eh, I'm probably overthinking again.

Watch this ... somewhere down the road, Orbital ATK will be conveniently purchased by Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and/or ULA. They'll call it "an injection of fresh minds and fresh ideas which will revitalize us to our foundation, and teach us the new way of doing old things.".

OldSpace WILL try get into the NewSpace biz, one way or another.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Orbital ATK Updates Progress on International Space Station Cargo Delivery Program for NASA

Antares rocket.

Preparations for the OA-4 Mission

Orbital ATK will launch its next Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS aboard an Atlas V rocket supplied by United Launch Alliance (ULA) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The OA-4 CRS mission is scheduled for launch in early December 2015. Like most Orbital ATK spacecraft, Cygnus is designed to be compatible with multiple launch vehicles. This capability, combined with ULA's flexibility in making available a launch slot this year, is enabling Orbital ATK to carry out the mission on a shortened schedule to be responsive to NASA's ISS logistics requirements.

"For the OA-4 mission, launching aboard the more powerful Atlas V allows us to better support NASA's ISS cargo needs with a full load of about 3,500 kg of pressurized cargo, consisting of essential supplies, equipment and science experiments," said Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK's Space Systems Group. The company also recently contracted with ULA for a second Atlas V rocket that will be used to launch an additional CRS mission in 2016 in order to provide NASA with the maximum cargo load Cygnus can carry.

"In 2016, we will carry out at least three more CRS missions: two (or possibly three) will be launched by Antares rockets, the first of which is on a path to be ready to launch early in the year, and one more will be launched aboard Atlas V to support NASA's need for additional cargo," Culbertson added. "We have not finalized the exact sequence of these missions yet, but the plan capitalizes on the flexibility of Cygnus to launch on either vehicle and provides better schedule assurance for our customer."

The Cygnus spacecraft to be used for upcoming CRS missions features an extended pressurized cargo module (PCM) that allows it to deliver larger volumes of cargo to the station than in previous missions. The spacecraft will also use the latest in lightweight space-qualified power system technology with the addition of the company's Ultraflex solar arrays.

The PCM for the OA-4 mission arrived at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) earlier this week where it will be integrated with the Cygnus spacecraft's service module, which will arrive in early October. The service module, which houses the spacecraft's avionics, electrical, propulsion and communications systems, is currently completing final testing at the company's Dulles, Virginia satellite manufacturing facility. Final assembly, cargo loading and fueling of the Cygnus spacecraft will take place at KSC prior to its integration with the Atlas V rocket for an early December launch.

 

 

Antares Return-to-Flight Progress

Orbital ATK's Antares program remains on schedule to commence flight operations from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in early 2016. Following the completion of certification and acceptance testing of the RD-181, the first dual-engine ship-set arrived at the Antares integration facilities at Wallops Island in mid-July.

"The RD-181 engine provides extra thrust and higher specific impulse, significantly increasing the payload capacity of the Antares rocket. This state-of-the-art propulsion system is a direct adaptation of the RD-191 engine, which completed an extensive qualification and certification program in 2013, accumulating more than 37,000 seconds of total run time," said Mr. Scott Lehr, President of Orbital ATK's Flight Systems Group.

Antares program engineers and technicians recently integrated the two RD-181 engines with a newly designed and built thrust frame adapter and modified first stage airframe. Later this month, new propellant feed lines and first stage avionics systems will be delivered to Wallops to support full vehicle integration. Orbital ATK plans to conduct a "hot fire" test on the launch pad late this year or in early 2016 to verify the vehicle's operational performance and compatibility of the MARS launch complex.

"With the delivery of the first set of flight engines now accomplished, and the second ship-set expected to arrive in the fall, Antares remains solidly on track to resume flights early in 2016. In fact, within the next couple of weeks all the hardware for the next Antares vehicle will be at our Wallops final assembly facility, with equipment for several additional rockets following a few months later," added Lehr.

 

 

Status of MARS Launch Pad Repairs

Repairs of the MARS Pad 0A launch facility at Wallops Island are currently underway and are scheduled to be completed at the end of September. Working with MARS, Orbital ATK has installed an upgraded hydraulic system used to erect Antares vertically on the pad, which recently completed testing and certification. Other launch pad systems are on track to comfortably support the on-pad Antares "hot fire" test late this year or in early 2016.

 

 http://spaceref.biz/company/orbital-atk-updates-progress-on-international-space-station-cargo-delivery-program-for-nasa.html

Cheers.....

[Unobscured Vision]

Well, gotta admire the desire to get the schedule back on track, but as said earlier it can't be cost effective. Those Atlas rockets aren't cheap. I bet ULA is laughing all the way to the bank.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Yes, It would be cheaper for SpaceX to launch them post September....but I'm sure pride dictates here...Cheers....

[Draggendrop Veteran]

US to get second shipment of Russian RD-181 rocket engines later in 2015

The American satellite and rocket builder Orbital ATK Corporation is set to receive a second shipment of Russian-made RD-181 rocket engines for its Antares launcher in late fall.

"Now when the first shipment has already come in and the second is expected later in autumn, the Antares is strictly keeping up with its schedule of flight resuming in the beginning of 2016," Scott Lehr, a senior company representative told RIA Novosti.

The Russian engines will considerably increase the lift capacity of the launcher.

The first two engines have already been delivered to the US earlier this summer.

In January, Russian rocket producer Energiya signed a $1 billion contract with US Orbital Sciences Corporation for the delivery of 60 RD-181 engines. The contract also specifies a range of included services such as flight training, the installation of the engine on the rocket and engine tests.

In the fourth quarter of 2015 the Orbital is scheduled to launch its first rocket since its failed October 2014 launch, it has the option to launch a second Atlas V in 2016 if needed.

In October, the Antares rocket, which was supposed to deliver over two tons of cargo to the ISS, exploded six seconds after blasting off from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

 

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/US_to_Get_Second_Shipment_of_Russian_RD_181_Rocket_Engines_Later_in_2015_999.html

60 engines for 30 launches....33.34 million per launch, for engines only.........

How is this cost effective.......Cheers.....

[Unobscured Vision]

Watch .. I bet there's been some "under-the-table" deal for ULA to procure some of those engines in exchange for Atlas launches at a huge discount. If ULA gets those badly-needed engines from Orbital ATK, they don't technically violate the embargo, do they.

Sneaky soy sauce ... 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

NASA Orders Two More ISS Cargo Missions From Orbital ATK

WASHINGTON — NASA ordered two more cargo deliveries to the International Space Station from Orbital ATK under a 2008 Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, a company spokeswoman said Aug. 12.

Orbital ATK, Dulles, Virginia, will fly two more missions under its 2008 contract for a total of 10 flights,  according to Orbital ATK spokeswoman Vicki Cox. The company designated the missions OA-9e and OA-10e, Cox said. She declined to say when those flights will occur, although the company has said it plans to launch any new CRS missions it gets from NASA on Antares once it completes two deliveries using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket. The Atlas 5 launches are slated for December and early 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

NASA may also order additional  cargo flights from its other CRS contractor, SpaceX of Hawthorne, California. “A modification is in work with both [CRS] providers,” NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz wrote in an Aug. 13 email. “Additional missions for SpaceX are still under discussion.”

 

SpaceX spokesman John Taylor referred questions about the company’s CRS contract to NASA.

Neither Schierholz nor Cox would disclose the financial terms of NASA’s latest CRS orders. The agency signed CRS contracts with Orbital ATK and Spacex in 2008. Each of these indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery deals runs through 2016 and has a maximum value of $3.1 billion. The eight deliveries NASA ordered from Orbital ATK in 2008 cost the agency $1.9 billion. The 12 missions NASA ordered from SpaceX that year cost $1.6 billion.

The additional orders coincident with another delay for the awarding of follow-on CRS contracts. Orbital ATK, SpaceX, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Sierra Nevada Corp. all bid for CRS-2 work and now will all wait until at least November for NASA to make an award.

NASA solicited CRS-2 bids last September and had planned to make awards in May. That slipped to September, and then again to November.

 

Both Orbital ATK and SpaceX suffered launch failures on their latest delivery attempts to ISS. On what was to be its third CRS mission, Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket exploded moments after its Oct. 28 liftoff from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which launches from Cape Canaveral, exploded about two minutes after liftoff June 28 on what was supposed to be its seventh CRS delivery.

Orbital ATK blamed Antares core stage AJ-26 engines, Soviet-vintage hardware refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California, for the October failure. SpaceX has yet to come up with a root cause for the June 28 Falcon 9 failure but believes a faulty strut in the upper stage contributed to the mishap.

 

 

Orbital ATK is replacing the AJ-26 with Russian-made RD-181s but plans to resume ISS cargo deliveries in early December by launching its Cygnus spacecraft aboard an Atlas 5. Orbital ATK ordered one Atlas 5 shortly after Antares failed and announced Aug. 12 it had ordered a second for a 2016 CRS mission. Orbital plans to resume Antares launches from Virginia in early 2016.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk has said the company will resume Falcon 9 launches no sooner than September.

 

http://spacenews.com/nasa-orders-two-more-iss-cargo-missions-from-orbital-atk/

Cheers.....

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Enhanced Cygnus to help Orbital ATK meet CRS contract by 2017

 

The first flight of Orbital ATK’s Enhanced Cygnus resupply craft for the International Space Station is set to launch in December atop an Atlas V rocket. Helping Orbital ATK return to flight operations, the Enhanced Cygnus spacecraft will allow the company to meet their initial CRS cargo up-mass contract with NASA in just four more missions. 

Enhanced Cygnus:

December’s upcoming OA-4 mission of Cygnus to the International Space Station (ISS) will be the first flight of Cygnus under the newly merged company Orbital ATK and the first flight of the company’s resupply vehicle on a non-Antares rocket.

 

 

This additional up-mass capability supported by the powerful Atlas V rocket’s core stage and its Centaur upper stage will allow Orbital ATK to reach a major milestone in the company’s Commercial Resupply Contract (CRS) with NASA sooner than expected.

In an exclusive interview with NASASpaceflight.com, Frank DeMauro, CRS Program Director for Orbital ATK stated that “with the upgraded Antares 230 and then with the couple of Atlas V [missions], we’re actually going to meet our initial cargo delivery requirement through the OA7 mission.”

 

 

The Standard Cygnus, flying on Orbital’s Antares 110, 120, and 130 series rockets, could carry a maximum payload of approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lbs) to ISS.

Enhanced Cygnus, on Atlas V, will be capable of lifting a maximum payload of 3,500 kg (7,700 lbs) to the ISS and 3,200 kg (7,100 lbs) of payload to ISS on the Antares 230 series rocket — set to debut early next year as part of Orbital ATK’s return to flight path.

According to Mr. DeMauro, “we had planned a long time ago that we would start flying, on the fourth mission, a longer cargo module — with essentially more volume to carry more cargo.”

In fact, Enhanced Cygnus will have a stretched Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) that will increase the total interior PCM volume to 27 cubic meters — an increase from the 18 cubic meter PCM volume of the Standard Cygnus.

Moreover, the stretched PCM is not the only aspect of the Enhanced Cygnus that will debut on December’s OA-4 flight. Orbital ATK ultraflex solar arrays will also grace the Enhanced Cygnus later this year.

“One of the more visible changes was the change-out from the flat panel solar array to an Orbital ATK ultraflex solar array — which deploys sort of like a fan,” stated Mr. DeMauro.

 

“The biggest difference between [the Orbital ATK ultraflex array] and a more traditional array is the structure behind the cells. It’s essentially a lightweight material to which the cells are mounted, as opposed to a more heavy structure.

“The key is to develop the array in such a way that you have a small stowed package with a highly reliable deployment system, but that when it’s open, the amount of surface area you get is about the same as you would get from a regular flat panel area.”

This approach to the Enhanced Cygnus design will allow Orbital ATK to have a lower mass solar array that produces the same amount of power as the previous generation Cygnus solar arrays.

 Importantly, though, the visual changes of the Enhanced Cygnus aren’t the only improvements Orbital ATK has made to its ISS resupply craft.

Lessons learned in terms of loading cargo into Cygnus have led to a significant increase in the amount of cargo that can be arranged within Cygnus.

According to Mr. DeMauro, “As we learned other things we could do in the cargo module, we’ve actually significantly increased the amount of cargo we can load in the same volume on the Enhanced Cygnus.

“So that’s why you’re seeing, for a relatively low percentage of size increase of the PCM, a significant increase in cargo carrying capability.”

Mr. DeMauro specifically noted that this service from Cygnus compliments the other contracted services NASA has for Station resupply efforts, and that there are no plans to redesign Cygnus for external supply delivery ops at Station.

If the current schedule holds, the first Enhanced Cygnus will launch to the ISS atop an Atlas V rocket – flying in the 401 configuration (with a 4-meter fairing, zero solid rocket boosters, and a single-engine Centaur upper stage) – on 3 December 2015 during a launch window that opens at 17:55 EST and closes at 18:25 EST (22:55 – 23:25 GMT).

 

 http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/08/enhanced-cygnus-help-orbital-atk-crs-contract-2017/

Nice panels and neat idea......Later.......

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Space Station Schedule May Delay Antares Return to Flight

 

Although Orbital ATK expects its re-engineed Antares to be ready by March, it could be some months after that before Wallops Island resumes its role as an International Space Station on-ramp. Credit: NASA

PASADENA, Calif. — While Orbital ATK says it is on schedule to have the new version of its Antares launch vehicle ready for flight in March, the vehicle’s first launch may be delayed by other missions to the International Space Station, including a Cygnus cargo spacecraft launching on an Atlas 5.

“Our initial launch capability for the re-engined Antares is scheduled for March of 2016,” said Mark Pieczynski, vice president of strategy and business development for Orbital ATK’s Flight Systems Group, in a panel session at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Space 2015 conference here Sept. 1.

Pieczynski said work replacing the AJ-26 engines previously used on the first stage of the Antares with RD-181 engines was on schedule. That effort, he said, includes a static fire test of the vehicle on the pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia planned for January.

 

 

While the vehicle may be ready for flight in March, it may have to wait for its payload. Orbital announced Aug. 12 it would launch a second Cygnus cargo mission on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 in 2016, after a previously announced launch scheduled for December. Orbital and ULA officials said here that second launch is planned for March.

If that schedule holds, the Antares launch would likely be delayed. “We will be ready for launch in March, but we may not launch in March,” said Warren Frick, advanced projects program manager at Orbital ATK, in a separate presentation at the conference Sept. 1. “We will work whatever is most effective for the program.”

One advantage to flying Cygnus on an Atlas 5 is the increased cargo that the spacecraft can carry to the ISS. “Those launches are actually twice the capacity of the other commercial cargo launches that have happened,” said Dan Collins, ULA’s chief operating officer. “So we’re … basically going to get four launches from here to next spring” on those two Atlas 5 Cygnus launches.

The re-engined Antares, while not as powerful as the Atlas 5, will offer increased performance over the earlier version of the Antares. The RD-181 engines provide higher thrust and greater efficiency than the AJ-26 engines, Frick said, increasing the vehicle’s payload for ISS missions from 5,800 to 7,000 kilograms.

Although the engine is more powerful, Frick said Orbital was able to use it on Antares with minimal changes to the overall rocket, primarily in the way the engines are attached to the core structure of the vehicle. “We did not really make any changes to the core,” he said. “We just changed how we attach the engines to the core.”

He added that Orbital ATK is looking at future modifications to the rocket to optimize it for the RD-181 engines. Those changes would increase the vehicle’s payload capacity for ISS missions by an additional 1,000 kilograms.

Plans for replacing the first stage engines in Antares were already in progress at the time of the October 2014 launch failure, blamed on the failure of a turbopump in one of the rocket’s AJ-26 engines. “We had always planned on re-engining it,” Frick said, both to increase performance and because of the limited supply of AJ-26 engines available. “At the time of the failure we had already selected the new engine. It just sped up how fast things went.”

The final report of the investigation into that failure is complete and has been delivered to the Federal Aviation Administration, Frick said, but declined to discuss its contents. He did note in one chart that none of the current suppliers for the Antares vehicle “has any implications in the failure.” That list of suppliers no longer includes Aerojet Rocketdyne, which provided the AJ-26 engine.

While the RD-181 provides improved performance for the vehicle, Pieczynski suggested the company has longer-term plans for the Antares. Asked about using the Russian-built engine on Antares, he said the company had no other options for the vehicle. “We needed a quick solution, and the fact of the matter is that there are no quick solutions in propulsion technology in the United States today,” he said.

“We see that as probably a mid-term solution to a longer-term solution,” he said of the RD-181.

 

 http://spacenews.com/space-station-schedule-may-delay-antares-return-to-flight/

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Cubesat Survives Antares Explosion

"Last October, scientists at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), National University of Singapore, were horrified when the Antares rocket exploded just seconds after take-off from a launch pad in Virginia, in the US. ... The CQT scientists thought their 300g device, embedded in a Danish satellite called GomX-2 in the rocket, and costing $12,000, had been lost. But they have been told that the satellite was found on a beach near the launch site and returned to GomSpace, the company in Denmark that built it. Assistant Professor Alexander Ling, a CQT principal investigator, told The Straits Times: "Just after the SG50 weekend, our Danish colleagues rebooted the satellite, and they sent us some data."

 

 http://nasawatch.com/archives/2015/09/cubesat-survive.html

Singapore-made device survives rocket explosion

The GomX-2 satellite with the NUS Centre for Quantum Technologies' device in it. The $12,000 device was feared to have been destroyed when the Antares rocket carrying the satellite exploded last October.PHOTO:GOMSPACE APS

A Singapore-made device thought to have been destroyed in a rocket explosion last year has been found intact and still operational.

Last October, scientists at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), National University of Singapore, were horrified when the Antares rocket exploded just seconds after take-off from a launch pad in Virginia, in the US.

The unmanned rocket had been bound for the International Space Station with 2,300kg of supplies, equipment and science experiments, including CQT's sandwich- sized device which was meant to test if "entangled" light particles can be produced in space.

 

 

This is the first step towards establishing quantum cryptography - a potentially safer way of transmitting encrypted data - over global distances.

The CQT scientists thought their 300g device, embedded in a Danish satellite called GomX-2 in the rocket, and costing $12,000, had been lost. But they have been told that the satellite was found on a beach near the launch site and returned to GomSpace, the company in Denmark that built it.

Assistant Professor Alexander Ling, a CQT principal investigator, told The Straits Times: "Just after the SG50 weekend, our Danish colleagues rebooted the satellite, and they sent us some data."

The CQT scientists had collected data with the device before it was placed in the rocket. By comparing the two sets of data, they concluded that the device was intact and still working.

"We don't know how the device survived the explosion, but this has validated the years of careful design that was put into the project," said Dr Ling. "We are now very confident that if our next device reaches space, it will work."

There have been different explanations for the rocket explosion - from excessive wear to the engine to debris gathering inside it.

After the GomX-2 satellite was found, it had to be cut out of the deployment mechanism, "so the impact must have been substantial", Dr Ling said.

"But the satellite itself was hardly damaged. It had a few dents and some sand inside, and everything was bent a few millimetres, but it ran without any repairs being done," he said.

He added that the CQT team has no plans to re-use the device, since it has now been "over-qualified" through its survival. "We agreed the GomX-2 satellite should not be disassembled at this time, as it yields greater value in being tested as a whole unit, so this copy of our instrument will remain in Denmark for some time," he said.

The CQT is developing its own quantum experiment satellites, with one due to be ready by 2017.

 

 http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-made-device-survives-rocket-explosion

Later.....

[Unobscured Vision]

Hehehe ... go on with your bad self, CubeSat. "Over-qualified" is an understatement. Tough little blighters. Exposure to the elements, an explosion of your Launcher, and an equally hard landing, and just a few bumps and scratches?! And it keeps working for nearly a year?! Yeah ... you passed qualification, alright.  Nice piece of kit, there, CQT.

[DocM]

Definitely the guys you want building your custom gear. 

[Unobscured Vision]

Definitely the guys you want building your custom gear. 

Would it surprise anyone if SpaceX hired them to start building birds? They'd be the ones to do business with if you want some really tough, durable equipment that needed to hold up to some abuse.

[DocM]

Unlikely. SpaceX opened their satellite factory in Seattle ~June, and their first 2 internet tech demonstrator birds launch as secondary payloads either on the RTF flight or soon after.

[Unobscured Vision]

True, but they could do cooperative and collaborative projects together. CubeSat/CQT is still new to the game, comparatively, so there's a large gap in experience and expertise. Guess I was thinking out loud earlier. *shrug*

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Hehehe ... go on with your bad self, CubeSat. "Over-qualified" is an understatement. Tough little blighters. Exposure to the elements, an explosion of your Launcher, and an equally hard landing, and just a few bumps and scratches?! And it keeps working for nearly a year?! Yeah ... you passed qualification, alright.  Nice piece of kit, there, CQT.

Energizer bunny "cubes" with a Timex stamp...take a licking and still keep ticking.....

[Unobscured Vision]

Oh yeah!

And congrats on 1k posts, DD.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Oh yeah!

And congrats on 1k posts, DD.

I thought I'd never make 500 post's in a few years......I blame it on you guys, you created a "monster"......

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Slight tap of the brakes here...........

NASA Inspector General Warns of Risks to Cygnus Return to Flight Plans

The cargo module for the next Cygnus cargo mission to the ISS arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in August for launch in December on an Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral. Credit: NASA/KSC

WASHINGTON — Orbital ATK’s plans to resume cargo flights to the International Space Station, using both an existing launch vehicle and an upgraded version of its own Antares rocket, face risks that could delay those missions, according to a new report.

The Sept. 17 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), reviewing NASA’s response to the October 2014 loss of a Cygnus cargo spacecraft, also found that the agency missed opportunities to seek savings in its contract with Orbital ATK before and after the accident, costing it more than $80 million.

Orbital ATK’s current plans call for carrying out four Cygnus flights through the end of 2016. Two, in December and March, will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Atlas 5 rockets Orbital is purchasing from United Launch Alliance. Two others will launch later in 2016 from Virginia on a new version of Orbital’s own Antares, replacing the original AJ-26 engines in its first stage with RD-181 engines from Russia’s NPO Energomash.

 

The report, though, warned that schedule may be too ambitious. “We found that Orbital’s Return to Flight Plan contains technical and operational risks and may be difficult to execute as designed and on the timetable proposed,” the report states.

That concern is based on both the use of the Atlas 5 and the upgrades to the Antares. Integrating the Cygnus with the Atlas 5 is a “credible solution,” the report argued, but doing so relatively quickly runs the risk of problems that could delay the mission.

A bigger issue is replacing the Antares’ first stage engine, which requires other changes to the vehicle. “The extent of these modifications, coupled with Orbital’s aggressive launch schedule, will limit the time available to conduct qualification testing of the new engines and other components,” the report warned. Orbital, the report stated, has no plans to perform a demonstration mission prior to launching a Cygnus.

Company officials note that both integration of the Cygnus with the Atlas 5 and upgrades to Antares remain on track. Orbital ATK spokeswoman Sean Wilson said Sept. 17 that the work on an early December launch “is moving along on schedule,” with the cargo module of the Cygnus already in Florida.

Mark Pieczynski, vice president of strategy and business development for Orbital ATK’s Flight Systems Group, said at a conference Sept. 1 that the “initial launch capability” for the re-engined Antares is on schedule for March 2016. However, company officials said then that the rocket’s return to flight could be delayed by the manifest of other cargo missions to the ISS.

 

 

William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said in a Sept. 14 memo included in the report that Orbital was “protecting” a March 2016 launch of the upgraded Antares. However, he added, “NASA believes June 2016 is more likely.”

The OIG report also criticized NASA for not taking steps both before and after the October accident to reduce its costs under the Commercial Resupply Services contract it has with Orbital ATK.

NASA did not take advantage of a contract provision that allowed it to renegotiate the price of the first two cargo missions when they were delayed from 2011 and 2012 to 2014. Had NASA done so, it would have saved $21 million. Instead, Orbital offered “other considerations,” such as analyses and minor spacecraft modifications, which NASA valued at only $2 million.

When Orbital developed its return to flight plan after the Orb-3 accident, it elected to eliminate one cargo mission, distributing the cargo it would have carried on the four other missions remaining on the original contract. NASA accepted an Orbital proposal to take the price of that canceled mission, divided by the mass of the cargo it would have carried, as the way to transfer its value to those other missions.

The OIG report found that NASA could have instead used a lower per-kilogram price specified in the contract to handle that change. “We calculated that doing this could have saved NASA up to $65 million – funds that we believe could have been put to better use,” the report stated.

The report did not take issue with the overall structure of the contract, where NASA pays most of the money for each mission prior to launch. “This is not unusual for government contracts relating to space operations given the expense and risks involved in spaceflight and the limited number of capable contractors,” it stated. Counting payments for the failed mission and early payments for two missions since added to the original contract, NASA has paid Orbital ATK $1.6 billion to date.

 

 http://spacenews.com/nasa-inspector-general-warns-of-risks-to-cygnus-return-to-flight-plans/

/s  And here I thought it was only SpaceX that had to requalify....for any change......how dare they change this.......

[Draggendrop Veteran]

As Betaguy GZT pointed out, in another thread, Orbital has had the remaining 10 engines removed from their inventory, by Aerojet...

 Aerojet Pays Orbital $50 Million To End Engine Dispute

An Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket, powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-26 engine, exploded seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, Oct. 28. Aerojet will pay Orbital $50 million as part of an agreement to terminate a contract to supply those engines. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — Aerojet Rocketdyne will pay Orbital ATK $50 million to end a dispute about the role Aerojet’s AJ-26 engine played in last year’s Antares launch failure, the propulsion provider announced Sept. 24.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Aerojet said it reached an agreement to terminate its contract to supply Orbital with AJ-26 engines that had been used to power the first stage of Orbital’s Antares launch vehicle. Under that agreement, Aerojet will make a one-time payment of $50 million by the end of September, and take possession of the 10 engines remaining under that original deal. Aerojet said it plans to recoup at least part of that payment from insurers.

The agreement, Aerojet said, settles any claims the companies had against one another from the Oct. 28 failure of an Antares rocket seconds after liftoff from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. Orbital said in the weeks after the accident that the turbopump in one of the first stage’s two AJ-26 engines malfunctioned.

 

 

The companies had publicly disagreed on the root cause of the failure. During a panel session at the 31st Space Symposium in April, Ronald Grabe, then-president of Orbital ATK’s Flight Systems Group, said “excessive bearing wear” in the turbopump caused engine components to come into contact, leading to the failure. However, Aerojet argued at the time that the bearings might have been damaged by debris that got into the engine from elsewhere in the vehicle.

Aerojet Rocketdyne spokesman Glenn Mahone said Sept. 25 that separate investigations of the launch failure by the two companies have been completed and submitted to NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration, but that there was little the companies could publicly discuss about them. “Virtually all of the data are highly proprietary, and there is nothing meaningful we can disclose,” he said.

Aerojet’s filing did not provide additional details about the agreement, nor did it assess blame for the launch failure on either company. Mahone also declined to provide further details about the agreement. Aerojet had warned in earlier regulatory filings that the Antares accident could result in termination of its contract to supply engines, and that it “may face significant damage claims” as a result.

Orbital announced last December that it would replace the AJ-26 engine, an “Americanized” version of the Soviet-era NK-33, with the RD-181 engine from Russia’s NPO Energomash. The new version of the Antares will be ready for launch in March, Mark Pieczynski, vice president of strategy and business development for Orbital ATK’s Flight Systems Group, said Sept. 1. However, NASA’s Office of Inspector General said in a Sept. 17 report that it was more likely that launch would take place in June.

 http://spacenews.com/aerojet-pays-orbital-50-million-to-end-engine-dispute/

mmmmmmm.......