Proposed Orbital ATK rocket takes next step toward KSC launches
An agreement with the Air Force is the latest step in Orbital ATK's effort to ready a new rocket for launch from Kennedy Space Center by 2021. The agreement formalizes a plan that could lead to the Air Force certifying the company's proposed Next Generation Launch system, or NGL, to fly national security missions.
From article, (An agreement with the Air Force is the latest step in Orbital ATK’s effort to ready a new rocket for launch from Kennedy Space Center by 2021.
The agreement formalizes a plan that could lead to the Air Force certifying the company’s proposed Next Generation Launch system, or NGL, to fly national security missions.
The certification plan envisions two launches in 2021 by the intermediate version of the NGL rocket from KSC’s pad 39B, which NASA would share with its own deep space exploration rocket, the Space Launch System.
The NGL is one of several vehicles competing to win a new round of Air Force launch contracts.
The service this summer is expected to award initial agreements to three companies to continue developing prototypes of new or upgraded rockets.
Two of the three will be selected as soon as 2019 for launches beginning in 2022.
That will fulfill the Air Force's goal to end reliance on Russian rocket engines that now power many missions flown by United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V. The Air Force already has helped fund work on new propulsion systems by Orbital ATK, ULA, SpaceX and Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Orbital ATK is attempting to unseat incumbents ULA or SpaceX, the only companies certified to launch national security missions such as Global Positioning System, communications and missile warning satellites.
The NGL is based on the Solid Rocket Boosters once flown by NASA’s space shuttle, and that will help lift the space agency's 322-foot SLS rocket, which is targeting a first flight in late 2019 or 2020.
Upgrades include 12-foot-diameter booster segment casings made with composites instead of steel. A
test-firing of the intermediate rocket’s first and second stages is planned in 2019 in Utah.
Orbital ATK says it and the Air Force have jointly invested more than $200 million in the concept so far.)
No comments:
Post a Comment