Orbital Sciences Antares & Cygnus spacecraft

[Beittil]

For ATV I can understand it, it is a much more complex ship that does more than just bring food/water to the station... it also acts as its booster for raising the height!

[DocM]

There will soon be other reboost options, and ATV/HTV are way more expensive.

[DocM]

So much for launching the ORB-1 Cygnus resupply mission to ISS on Tuesday....

January 3, 2014

Orbital, in consultation with NASA, has decided to reschedule the Antares CRS Orb-1 Space Station Resupply Mission launch for no earlier than Wednesday, January 8, 2014. The new target date was set due to the extreme cold temperatures that are forecasted for early next week, coupled with likely precipitation events predicted for Sunday night and Monday morning. While we are preserving the option to launch on January 8, it is more likely that the launch will take place on Thursday, January 9 because of a much improved forecast for later in the week.

The launch window on Wednesday is 1:32 ? 1:37 pm EST (18:32 ? 18:37 GMT). If weather conditions on Wednesday do not prove favorable, the launch window for Thursday, January 9 is 1:10 ? 1:15 pm EST (18:10 ? 18:15 GMT).

Rollout of the rocket to the pad will occur as previously scheduled tomorrow night, January 4, due to the relatively favorable weather, and the fact that the cargo has already been loaded onto the Cygnus. The team will execute on-pad preparations (mating the rocket to the pad, rotating the rocket to its vertical position, connecting umbilicals, etc.) immediately after rollout.

The Launch Readiness Review is currently scheduled to take place on Monday January 6.

From NASA:

The International Space Station Program and Orbital Sciences Corporation have decided to postpone the launch of the Antares rocket and its Cygnus cargo craft on the first Orbital commercial resupply mission to the space station to no earlier than Wednesday, Jan. 8 due to the forecast of cold temperatures for Tuesday, Jan. 7 at the launch site at NASA?s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The forecast for Wednesday also calls for cold temperatures, but the station program and Orbital plan to revisit the weather forecast at the beginning of the week. The main concern with the weather is the cold temperatures coupled with likely precipitation. Orbital says the Antares rocket has a lower limit temperature constraint of 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Orbital still plans to roll out its Antares rocket to Launch Pad 0A at Wallops on Saturday night because the weather is forecast to be favorable at that time.

The launch time for Wednesday, Jan. 8 is 12:32:33 p.m. Central time, 1:32:33 p.m. Eastern time. NASA TV coverage of launch will begin at 12 Noon CT, 1 p.m. ET.

A launch on Wednesday will result in a grapple of Cygnus by the Expedition 38 crew aboard the station on Sunday, Jan. 12 at 5:02 a.m. CT, 6:02 a.m. ET. NASA TV coverage will begin at 4 a.m. CT. Coverage of the installation of Cygnus on the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module will begin at 6 a.m. CT, 7 a.m. ET.

[Beittil]

Launch scrubbed for today (8th) due to stronger than desired Solar activity... teams remain on the lookout, but a new attempt is probably to be expected tomorrow!

[DocM]

Hoping all goes well. They certainly seem to have had their share of the weather gods, both on Earth and in space.

[malenfant]

There will soon be other reboost options, and ATV/HTV are way more expensive.

I wonder if Dragon could serve. Fuel and one or more SuperDracos in an extended trunk perhaps. If the SuperDraco can maintain a long enough burn time.

What other options were you referring to?

[DocM]

While Progress is docked at ISS it uses its propellant and thrusters to perform Station reboost maneuvers. Also, Boeings CST-100 using its launch abort fuel and possibly SpaceX's Dragon 2/DragonRider though we don't know its fuel load yet (it's getting major upgrades and may get a service module.) Odds are it'll be increased so there would also be fuel for propulsive landings.

Down the road the Japanese are at work on HTV 2.0 and there's an ISS test of the VASIMR plasma rocket at ISS, which would use a tiny fuel load and can run for weeks at a time.

[malenfant]

Plenty of options. VASIMR looks especially interesting.

[DocM]

There are other electric drive options as well, one being large Hall Effect Trusters.

The downside is the size of solar array both it and VASIMR need using current array tech. This limits them to a few Newtons of thrust, but if you run them for hundreds to thousands of hours straight that adds up. Both can do this using small quantities of xenon, neon or other gases as propellant.

Further out, the theoretical guys at NASA's advanced propulsion lab are working on the Q-Thruster, which uses no propellant but electricity for power. Q (quantum vacuum plasma) thrusters "push" against fluctuations in the quantum vacuum.

Still very early on.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster

[DocM]

The ORB-1 launch was delayed because of high energy proton flux from an X-class solar flare. Right now it's day by day with the earliest window Thursday aftetnoon.

[DocM]

Uh-oh....

1552 GMT (10:52 a.m. EST)

A red team is being prepared to enter the launch pad to investigate the liquid oxygen leak. The launch team has paused pressurization of the gaseous nitrogen system, and officials are donning proper safety gear to enter the pad.

[DocM]

1608 GMT (11:08 a.m. EST)

The red team took a look at the small liquid oxygen leak on a ground maintenance line and found it was not dripping onto any important launch pad systems. The issue has been cleared and launch remains on schedule for 1:07 p.m. EST (1807 GMT).

The countdown was paused for about 3 minutes a few minutes ago as the launch team worked to resolve the issue. The time will be made up in a build-in hold in a few minutes.

[DocM]

Webcast on UStream

http://ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tv-wallops

[Beittil]

That was certainly a nice and clean launch + climb to orbit. Job well done by Orbital!

[DocM]

http://spaceflightnow.com

Antares lifts off with Cygnus cargo ship bound for station

A commercial cargo ship has lifted off on a mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia occurred at 1:07 p.m. EST (1807 GMT), with arrival at the space station scheduled for Sunday.

[DocM]

Orbital Sciences is proposing enlarged versions of Cygnus, both for CRS round 2 and as a beyond Earth orbit (BEO) habitat for use with NASA's Orion exploration vehicle.

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/03-Walz_Cygnus_Beyond_Low-Earth_Orbit.pdf

https://ac.arc.nasa.gov/p5uwr8gcebb/?archiveOffset=1620000

[DocM]

Guess we now know who will supply the non-Russian, non-Ukrainian Antares first stage.

ATK made the solid fuel SRB boosters for the Shuttle, and will do the same for NASA's Space Launch System.

ATK also proposed using a stretched SRB booster as the first stage of a manned launcher named Liberty, but it lost out in the second round of the NASA Commercial Crew program.

http://www.spacenews.com/article/financial-report/40386orbital-sciences-atk-announce-merger-of-equals

Orbital Sciences, ATK Announce "Merger of Equals"

PARIS ? Satellite and rocket builder Orbital Sciences and rocket-motor builder ATK on April 29 said they have agreed to merge their aerospace and defense divisions in a $5 billion transaction that has been definitively approved by both companies.

The new company, to be called Orbital ATK, will count 13,000 employees and in 2013 would have generated $4.5 billion in revenue.

The companies said ATK would be spinning off its commercial sporting-equipment group to ATK shareholders.

The companies described the deal as a "merger-of-equals combination." ATK shareholders will have 53.8 percent the new company, with Orbital investors owning 46.2 percent.

>

[Beittil]

The next Orbital mission to the ISS is now targeted NET June 10th:

 

 

Orbital Sciences ?@OrbitalSciences  16m

Orbital and @NASA are targeting June 10 at 2:07 a.m. for the #Antares launch of the #Orb2 cargo mission from @NASA_Wallops to the #ISS

[DocM]

A note about coming changes to Antares

The first stage tanks, plumbing and wiring are made Yuzhnoye SDO in Ukraine, and the engines are US modified NK-33's made by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau in Russia. Orbital had planned to upgrade Antares with larger tanks and the more powerful Russian made RD-180 engine.

Needless to say all of these present a problem what with the current international situation.

Because of the merger between Orbital Sciences and ATK, makers of the Shuttle and SLS solid boosters, there have been strong hints Orbital will shift gears and use a new, larger, solid fuel first stage. It's also possible this first stage will be segmented, allowing Orbital to adjust the burn time by adding full or partial segments in future upgrades.

This would certainly eliminate the 'Russia problem' and guarantee their supply chain would be uninterrupted.

[DocM]

Atlas V and Enhanced Cygnus rolling out

 

http://twitter.com/taliaeliana/status/672071004311658496

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Kind of a "Heinz 57" now........... ULA/AR/Orbital/LM/Boeing/Energomash ..........did I miss anyone?

[DocM]

Thales Alenia Space (France, the pressurized can), UltraFlex solar arrays from the ATK division  and some components made for NASA's DAWN spacecraft.

[Blue-Vision]

Anybody willing to venture an educated guess that there will be some "common-sense, magical merger" down the line between Orbital and ULA? As much business as they'll be doing together they might as well merge.

[DocM]

Not at thIs point. OrbitalATK is taking  a loss to fly on Atlas V, and we have no fracking idea what Vulcan will actually cost.  

 

I think Blue Origin buying ULA is more likely anyhow.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Vulcan is a ways off, Antares 200 needs to pass acceptance, somehow real quick which can't possibly be done "by the book" in that short span, as only 2 Atlas 5's are booked....and Antares has RD 181's going in the 200....would not do any good to ULA....... this is a real kitchen mess.....