Antares launches to resume at Wallops in 2016

Orbital ATK Inc. is on track to make the next Antares launch from Wallops in early 2016, President Dave Thompson said.

The company is preparing for multiple cargo supply missions to the International Space Station in 2016 under its Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

“We committed to NASA that we would resume CRS cargo delivery missions as soon as possible under a comprehensive ‘go-forward’ plan after the Antares launch failure last October,” Thompson said in a Aug. 6 conference call to investors, adding, “Since that time our team has been sharply focused on fulfilling that commitment. With a Cygnus mission slated for later this year and at least three additional missions to the space station planned in 2016, we are on track to meet our CRS cargo requirements for NASA.”

The mission this year will launch from Florida.

The first set of the new main engines for the Antares rocket were delivered to Wallops in July, after successful certification testing in May.

The catastrophic failure of an Antares rocket in October 2014 was attributed to a turbopump-related failure in one of the two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 first-stage engines.

The company after that said it will use a different engine for future Antares launches.

The AJ26 engines, originally called the NK-33, were built by Soviet scientists about 40 years ago to launch a Russian rocket to the moon in a program that later was scrapped. Aerojet had purchased about 40 of the engines in the mid-1990s and made modifications to make them compatible with Antares, according to a company press release.

Antares rockets before the failure were used for two successful cargo supply missions to the International Space Station under Orbital’s contract with NASA, as well as for a test flight and a demonstration mission.

The rocket’s design has been upgraded with newly-built first stage engines, which the company said will provide greater payload performance and increased reliability.

The RD-181 liquid-fuel engines that will be used for future Antares flights come from the Russian company Energomash.

“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 Scott Lehr, president of Orbital ATK’s Flight Systems Group.

The company’s order with Energomash can take it through 2020, “with firm orders that will allow us to fulfill our CRS commitments for NASA and several more options that can be exercised along the way as needed,” Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski said in a Dec. 17 article in SpaceNews.

Beneski did not give the cost of the engine order.

The new engines are in the process of being integrated into the rocket at Wallops, after which the company will begin testing that will continue through fall, Thompson said.

The plan is to roll out the rocket around the end of the year for on-pad system and engine testing.

Orbital ATK plans to conduct a hot-fire test on the Wallops launch pad late this year or early in 2016.

All remaining hardware for the next Antares launch is due to arrive at Wallops by mid-August, according to Orbital ATK Chief Operating Officer Blake Larson.

The launch complex was damaged in the October 2014 failure, in which the rocket exploded seconds after launch and crashed about 25 feet from the $150 million launch pad.

Orbital ATK, NASA and Virginia earlier this month signed an agreement about the facility, in which Orbital ATK will carry insurance for the pad for future flights.

The deal also requires the three parties to split evenly the $15 million cost to repair the launch complex.

Repairs at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport are due to be completed by late September or early October, Thompson said.

“That has progressed quite well during the spring and summer, and things area on track at present to complete the repair and retesting work at the end of September,” he said.

Working with the spaceport, Orbital ATK has installed an upgraded hydraulic system to erect Antares on the launch pad, which recently passed testing.

The company will launch its next cargo mission to the International Space Station in December. That mission will use an Atlas V rocket supplied by United Launch Alliance and will be launched from Florida, delivering about 7,700 pounds of supplies to the space station.

cvvaughn@dmg.gannett.com

757-787-1200, ext. 115

On Twitter @cvvaughnESN