Orbital Sciences Antares & Cygnus spacecraft

[Unobscured Vision]

2 minutes ago, Draggendrop said:

I am curious as to the method for astronaut transfer to the capsule. Would it be swing arm, telescopic ramp....or on the ULA cheap with rope and tire...

Naah, they're gonna seal up the Astronauts in ahead of time in the VAB and make them sit there for 3-4 days. No restroom breaks. Just like Geminii. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Just now, Unobscured Vision said:

Naah, they're gonna seal up the Astronauts in ahead of time in the VAB and make them sit there for 3-4 days. No restroom breaks. Just like Geminii. 

And their suits will have extra sandwich pockets...

[Unobscured Vision]

Ooh! The Pocket of Faith! It's rumored that each Astronaut is sent up with one! (They are allowed to eat the sandwich upon opening it ..) 

[DocM]

It has an arm which swings out, providing a catwalk and white room. The arm retracts to its storage bay before launch.

 

Dragon 2's arm will attach to 39A's Fixed Service Structure tower.

 

Edited March 22, 2016 by DocM

[Beittil]

It is going to be a swinging arm with a white room at the end

 

 

I am not sure if this is the actual one that they will relocate to the service tower or just an engineering test version.

[DocM]

It is.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Cygnus separation

 

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0327 GMT (11:27 p.m. EDT)
T+plus 22 minutes. SPACECRAFT SEPARATION! The Centaur upper stage has deployed the Orbital ATK's commercial Cygnus resupply ship destined to deliver over 7,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station some 80 hours from now.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/03/21/av064journal/

 

Livestream was good. Will add data when available.

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

15 minutes ago, Draggendrop said:

Cygnus separation

 

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/03/21/av064journal/

 

Livestream was good. Will add data when available.

 

Was a pretty launch.  First time I noticed a rectangular looking "tarp" thing above the vehicle.  Is that something new...or just unique to this particular launch vehicle and/or pad?

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

It appears to be the lightning arrestor grid wires off the towers forming that shape. I will look up the tower  pattern.

 

It was a good launch for visuals.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

[Atlas V] Launch of Cygnus OA-6 on Atlas V Rocket from Cape Canaveral

video is 4:36 min.

 

 

 

[Beittil]

Those are indeed wires, they connect the lightning towers.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Atlas launch of Cygnus             NASA

http://spaceflightnow.com/

 

[DocM]

First Antares 230 static fire test April 25. Stage is already at Wallops.

This is one of the legacy Antares 130 stages converted to take RD-181's, which will run at partial throttle due to the insufficient prop load for that engine (commercial version of Angara 5's RD-193.)

 

Once the converted stages are used up, longer Antares 330 stages will be used which will allow 100% throttle and heavier payloads 

[Unobscured Vision]

Okay, now they're just copying SpaceX. They're gonna call the 330 a "Full Throttle" model, or somehow try to relate their design to the Falcon 9 FT.

 

Seriously, though, it'll be interesting to see how much of a difference the performance will be. I think that the 181 is going to give them some challenges at first, but they'll work through them. Hope their insurance is paid up ...

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Orbital targets July for 1st flight of redesigned Antares rocket

 

Orbital ATK said its redesigned Antares rocket, with different Russian first-stage propulsion, should make its first flight from Wallops Island, Virginia, in July. Synergies with other Orbital businesses mean Antares is profitable even if it wins no business beyond the 2-3 launches per year planned for NASA, Orbital said. Credit: NASA

 

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PARIS—Satellite and rocket builder Orbital ATK on May 5 said its re-engined Antares medium-lift launch vehicle likely would make its first flight in July and would be nicely profitable for Orbital even if it wins no other customers beyond its current NASA space station resupply business.

 

Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital has enough NASA station-resupply work to assure two or three Antares launches per year well into the next decade and the company expects to widen its customer set once the redesigned Antares has proven itself.

 

But even in a worst-case scenario in which Antares is used only for the NASA work, it will be a good business for Orbital.

 

In a conference call with investors, Orbital Chief Executive David W. Thompson said the company has maximized Antares synergies with other Orbital products, pulling into Antares Orbital’s work on target vehicles, missile defense interceptors and smaller launch vehicles.

 

“There are lots of interchangeable parts and subsystems, with the same engineering and manufacturing teams and facilities,” Thompson said. If the vehicle can move beyond NASA to average five or six flights per year, the profit margin thickens, he said.

 

A flight rate of two or three per year is generally considered exceptionally low for a rocket that must pay its own way in a competitive environment. Orbital is one of three companies providing supply missions to NASA under the Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract, whose launches start in 2019.

 

The first re-engined Antares uses Russian RD-181 engines for the first stage. They replace an earlier Russian design that Orbital no longer trusted after an October 2014 Antares failure, which was the vehicle’s fifth and last flight.

 

Since then, Orbital has kept current on its NASA space station resupply contract obligations by booking two Atlas 5 launches from United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado.

 

This is of interest....

 

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Assuming a successful static-fire test in late May at the Wallops Island, Virginia, spaceport, Antares would launch the Orbital-built Cygnus supply vehicle to the international space station in July. A successful launch will lead to a second flight around November, also a NASA station-resupply mission, Thompson said.

????? a static fire qualifies this for a NASA resupply mission...what do I know...seems pretty risky to me unless I have missed something....

 

http://spacenews.com/orbital-targets-july-for-1st-flight-of-redesigned-antares-rocket/

 

[DocM]

The bulk of Antares 230 is based on the Antares 130 cores they have in storage. After they run out comes Antares 330 which is a core stretch - like SpaceX has done how many times? 

 

All that changed is swapping out the 40 year old, poorly stored engines for brand new RD-181's - the commercial version of the RD-193 Angara engine, and it's supporting hardware, which have been flown by Russia.

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

True, but a major power plant change and the associated hiccups, should raise a few questions with the customer. The RD-181 is proven, but it's the installation of it, and it's subsystems, into a launcher it has not been in.

 

An engine swap in a ship doesn't even go well most times till the smaller things are taken care of....like testing.

 

Oh well..... hope it doesn't come back to bite them....

 

SpaceX has played with cores, and upgraded existing designed engines, but it's still the Merlin...not a totally different power source, which would have had every one down their necks on that.

 

Just seems a bit lax to me.

[Unobscured Vision]

ATK isn't exactly NewSpace. They're originally a branch-off of Honeywell who's been in the mix (Consumer, Commercial and Mil/Gov) in multiple, concurrent forms for a long, long time. Lot of the same people from the old company and subsidiaries went to work there (and retired with nice, fat pensions from all companies). One of my Grandparents worked for a subsidiary of theirs for most of his life; and you'd be astounded at what they had their hands in. Talk about Lockheed-Martin being "big time" ... Honeywell was/is just as big if not bigger; just in different arenas.

 

References:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliant_Techsystems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_ATK

 

They know what they're doing. Whether it's the correct course of action remains to be seen.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

OK...I'm officially tired and/or old, as I am having a hard time figuring where ^ was going in relation to my above post....

 

I probably did a bad job of explaining why I felt as such...here goes, to keep it short.

 

Being old, and an interest in space, has made me fortunate enough to see the "highs and lows" since the 60's til present day. I have been dead against "mega corporations" due to the culture of "shareholder greed" and where it's actions usually lead.

 

I have seen too much of "oldspace" that at times, it turns your stomach, for some of their wonderful decisions, some of which have cost lives.

 

My problem.... This is the same company with the "issues" that caused their last accident. This does not inspire nor deserve confidence. What they are doing is not a "minor switch" where a "static fire" is good enough. I will presume that NASA has a contractual requirement for insurance of payload and ancillaries.

 

This is one aspect of "newspace" that I like, they innovate, test and prove themselves and their gear. A rescue chute test in a wind tunnel, capsule buoyancy in a swimming pool and "static fire" for a whole propulsion system change, does not cut it in my world...old guy rant over....

[Unobscured Vision]

No worries at all, bud. My problem is the same as yours; but I'm way too young (43) to be this jaded already. That's what happens when you come from a family who worked in Mil/Gov, and then you and your siblings do the same thing finishing H.S. early just to get the "Mil" halves of the equations under our belts so we can start on the "College" and then the "Gov" or "Corp" parts. Problem with the 90's were that they were just strange times. 

 

Bush Sr? Business as usual. Clinton? That's when stuff went pear-shaped ... and money-shaped too ... and all kinds of different shapes. 

 

Anyway, I digress.

 

ATK, Orbital, Alliant .. whoever they wanna call themselves tomorrow. They're still a branch of Honeywell behind closed doors where it matters.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Upgraded Antares rolls out to launch pad for tests

 

An Antares first stage booster rolls out to pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops, Island, Virginia, on Thursday. Credit: Orbital ATK

 

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An Antares booster emerged from its hangar on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and rolled out to its launch pad Thursday for the first time since a rocket failure grounded Orbital ATK’s cargo launcher in 2014.

 

Mounted on an eight-axle mobile transporter, the Antares rocket’s first stage rolled about a mile from its Horizontal Integration Facility south to launch pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a state-owned complex at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

 

The rocket will stay at the launch pad for several weeks as Orbital ATK’s launch team puts it through testing.

 

The Antares launch team will load propellants into the rocket for a wet dress rehearsal, then conduct a 30-second firing of the first stage’s RD-181 engines, perhaps by the end of May. Hold-down restraints will keep the rocket grounded during the hotfire test.

 

“The team will continue to work meticulously as they begin final integration and check outs on the pad and several readiness reviews prior to the test,” Orbital ATK said in a statement Thursday. “The window for the stage test will be over multiple days to ensure technical and weather conditions are acceptable.”

 

If everything goes as planned, technicians will remove the Antares test booster from the launch pad and roll out a fully assembled rocket for a resupply launch to the International Space Station as soon as July.

 

The Antares rocket’s first stage approaches pad 0A. Credit: NASA/Allison Stancil

 

The service module for Orbital ATK’s next Cygnus supply ship, seen here, has arrived at the launch site at Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: Orbital ATK

 

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The single-chamber RD-181 is similar to the dual-nozzle RD-180 engine flown on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5, producing about the thrust of its larger cousin. NPO Energomash produces a nearly identical engine named the RD-191 for Russia’s Angara rocket family.

 

The new version of the rocket is known as the Antares 230 configuration, according to Orbital ATK.

 

Orbital ATK holds multibillion-dollar contracts with NASA for up to 17 logistics launches to the space station. That figure includes 11 missions under a modified contract first signed by Orbital ATK and NASA in 2008, and at least six more flights in a follow-on commercial resupply deal announced earlier this year.

 

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The Cygnus spacecraft launched in March will remain at the space station until June, when it will depart to clear a berthing port for the arrival of the next Orbital ATK cargo delivery mission, known as OA-5, as soon as July.

 

The pressurized cargo module for the next Cygnus cargo carrier arrived at the Virginia launch base in March from Thales Alenia Space’s factory in Italy. The spacecraft’s service module arrived at Wallops this week after it was trucked from Orbital ATK’s headquarters in Dulles, Virginia.

 

Ground crews will soon begin installing cargo into the Cygnus cabin for transport to the space station.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/05/12/upgraded-antares-rolls-out-to-launch-pad-for-tests/

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Make sure you guys inspect it for mould/mildew! 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/#sthash.zOB7PeYZ.dpuf

 

DULLES, Va., 31 May 2016 (Orbital ATK PR) -– Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, today announced it conducted a full-power “hot fire” test of the upgraded first stage propulsion system of its Antares medium-class rocket using new RD-181 main engines.

 

The 30-second test took place at 5:30 p.m. (EDT) on May 31, 2016 at Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad 0A. Initial indications are that the test was fully successful.
>

 

 

 

[Beittil]

Well, 20 million in repairs to the pad @ MARS, but a decent camera mount wasn't in the budget apparently