ORS-5: SensorSat – Minotaur-4/Orion 38 – Канаверал SLC-46 – 26.08.2017, 03:14 UTC

Автор Salo, 13.02.2017 02:33:06

« назад - далее »

0 Пользователи и 1 гость просматривают эту тему.

tnt22


tnt22


tnt22

Цитировать Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 3 мин. назад

This will be the largest low-Earth orbit inclination plane change in history - 28.5 degrees latitude to equatorial orbit #MinotaurIV #ORS5

tnt22


tnt22


tnt22

http://www.orbitalatk.com/news-room/release.asp?prid=280
Цитировать
Orbital ATK Set to Launch Minotaur IV Rocket Carrying ORS-5 Satellite for the US Air Force
ORS-5 Launch will be 26th Flight for Minotaur Family of Launch Vehicles
Dulles, Virginia 24 August 2017 – Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, today announced it is in final preparations to launch the company's Minotaur IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on Friday, August 25, at approximately 11:15 p.m. EDT. The Minotaur IV will carry the U.S. Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space-5 (ORS-5) spacecraft, which will monitor satellites and space debris to aid the U.S. military's space situational awareness.
Спойлер
Building on the Minotaur family's 100 percent success rate, this mission will mark the 26th flight for Orbital ATK's Minotaur product line and the sixth flight of the Minotaur IV configuration. Minotaur vehicles are based on government-furnished Peacekeeper and Minuteman rocket motors that Orbital ATK has upgraded and integrated with modern avionics and other subsystems to produce an affordable launcher based on reliable, flight-proven hardware. The Minotaur IV is capable of launching payloads up to 4,000 lbs. (or 1,800 kg.) to low-Earth orbit. Minotaur rockets have previously launched from ranges in California, Virginia and Alaska. This will be the company's first launch of a Minotaur rocket from Launch Complex-46, managed by Space Florida.

"Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station expands the Minotaur launch vehicle's capability to meet specific mission requirements for our customer," said Rich Straka, Vice President and General Manager of Orbital ATK's Launch Vehicles Division. "We are pleased to be able to provide continued launch support for the ORS office with our reliable Minotaur family of launch vehicles and look forward to a successful launch of the ORS-5 mission."

The Minotaur product line is provided via the Orbital/Suborbital Program (OSP-3) contract and managed by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), Launch Enterprise, Experimental Launch and Test Division (LE/LEX), and Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP) located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.

Live coverage of the Minotaur launch and details about the mission are available at www.orbitalatk.com.
...
[свернуть]

tnt22


tnt22


tnt22


tnt22

http://spacenews.com/minotaur-launch-gao-report-rekindles-debate-over-surplus-icbm-motors/
ЦитироватьMinotaur launch, GAO report rekindles debate over surplus ICBM motors
by Mike Fabey — August 24, 2017


Orbital ATK is set to launch Minotaur 4 fr om Cape Canaveral for the first time. Credit: U.S. Air Force

WASHINGTON — As Orbital ATK readies for its first scheduled Minotaur 4 launch from Cape Canaveral as soon as Aug. 25, a debate is flaring up again about whether the company should be able to use converted surplus intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) motors to launch commercial satellites.

Rekindling the argument is a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this month examining the pros and cons of such a course and provides plenty of fodder for both sides.
Спойлер
While surplus ICBM motors can be used for government launches, the 1998 Commercial Space Act forbids their use for commercial launches. The U.S. Air Force has a stockpile of about 720 surplus motors, the GAO says in its Aug. 16 report, "Surplus Missile Motors, Sale Price Drives Potential Effects on [Defense Department] and Commercial Launch Providers."

Changing the law to allow the use of surplus ICBM motors for commercial space launch could give U.S. companies more domestic options for sending small satellites to low-Earth orbit while making U.S. launch companies more globally competitive, the GAO says. Commercial rockets used surplus ICBM solid rocket motors could  also provide launch customers with more service options and greater schedule flexibility, according to the report.


Surplus Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Motor-Based Launch Vehicles. Credit: U.S. Government Accountability Office

But the GAO notes the sole beneficiary of such a policy change appears to be Orbital ATK, the Dulles, Virginia, company. "Orbital ATK is the sole U.S. provider of ICBM motor-based space-launch vehicles."

The Minotaur 1, first launched in 2000, uses two surplus Minuteman 2 motors and the Minotaur 4, first launched in 2010, uses three Peacekeeper motors.

For the Aug. 25 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Minotaur 4 will launch from the revamped Complex 46, which was last used for a launch in 1999 and is next scheduled for launch use in 2019 when NASA tests the Orion crew capsule's abort system.

The Minotaur 4 will carry the Air Force's 113-kilogram Operational Responsive Space (ORS)-5 satellite, known as SensorSat, into a low-inclination orbit from wh ere it will track satellites and other space objects in geosynchronous orbit. The ORS-5 system cost $87.5 million, the Air Force says, including $49 million for the satellite and $11.3 million for its ground system. Orbital ATK's $27.2 million launch contract, awarded in 2014 after no other launch venture was deemed qualified to bid, was about $7 million more than ORS officials initially expected to spend.
Спойлер
Industry is concerned, though, that the sale of converted ICBM motors could help Orbital ATK drive down costs for commercial launches of small satellites. The company is already pushing its Minotaur-C, an upgraded Taurus rocket whose only scheduled flight is an Oct. 18 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with six SkySat Earth-observation satellites for Planet.

Orbital ATK wants to replace the Castor 120 motors it builds for the Minotaur-C with surplus Peacekeeper motors in order to reduce costs on commercial launches, says Barron Beneski, Orbital ATK vice president of corporate communications. "Whether it would be a Minotaur-C or something we would rebrand, I don't know."

Some in the launch industry, GAO notes, say that if the Air Force were to sell the converted motors, it should offer a Peacekeeper motor set (three are required for a launch) at the market price of a Castor 120, or about $11.2 million. But at least one party – Orbital ATK won't say if it was them – told government officials the Air Force should sell a Peacekeeper motor set for $1.3 million, significantly less than what it would cost the Air Force to refurbish and transfer the motors to industry.

While it looks like the Air Force likely will not offer the motors at such a cut-rate price — there are concerns any below-cost pricing would violate U.S. international trade agreements — launch competitors fret that any kind significant savings the government offers with motor sales could send the wrong signal to the reemering U.S. commercial launch industry.

"This is exactly the wrong time to start intervening in the commercial launch industry," said Richard DalBello, vice president for business development and government affairs for Virgin Orbit. "Especially in a way that can pick winners and losers."

"The GAO points out a change in policy could have a significant negative result," said DalBello, who helped organize the Next-Generation Launch Coalition, a group of companies that oppose relaxing the restrictions on surplus motors.

Beneski said if Orbital ATK were permitted to buy the converted motors for commercial launches, it would agree to a Pentagon process meant to ensure the company wasn't given an unfair advantage.

Beneski also said Minotaur-class rockets are generally overpowered for small satellite launches, adding that Orbital ATK would be going after customers needing to launch satellites weighing at least 1,000 kilograms.

Still, Department of Commerce officials have warned the motor sales could disrupt competition by lowering costs for a select group of launch providers. NASA officials told the GAO that allowing motor sales may stifle commercial space innovation.

But Beneski said U.S. launch providers losing cubesat contracts and other small payload customers to foreign competitors should not fear the Minotaur rocket family, which is meant for bigger payloads.

"What they are worried about is secondary payloads," Beneski said "We're not their competition. India just launched a hundred of them."

In February, India's PSLV rocket launched 101 cubesat-class spacecraft — 88 for San Francisco-based Planet and eight for neighbor Spire —  into addition to the primary payload, the Cartosat-2D imaging satellite, and two smaller Indian satellites.
[свернуть]
[свернуть]


tnt22

Цитировать AF SMC‏ @AF_SMC 2 мин. назад

Final prep underway for tomorrow's #ORS5 launch. The launch window opens at 11:15 pm EDT.

tnt22


tnt22

Цитировать Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow 8 мин. назад

A US military satellite the size of a coffee table set to launch fr om Cape Canaveral Friday night on Minotaur rocket https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/25/military-satellite-ready-for-launch-aboard-converted-cold-war-era-missile/ ...

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/25/military-satellite-ready-for-launch-aboard-converted-cold-war-era-missile/
ЦитироватьMilitary satellite ready for launch aboard converted Cold War-era missile
August 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

A U.S. military satellite awaiting launch Friday night fr om Cape Canaveral is small enough to fit on a coffee table, but it will punch above its weight, scanning a region more than 20,000 miles above Earth to catalog spacecraft movements and space junk.

The 249-pound (113-kilogram) spacecraft carries a telescope and a camera to locate and help track objects in geosynchronous orbit, a belt thousands of miles over the equator home to commercial and military communications, surveillance and weather satellites.
Спойлер

The Minotaur 4 rocket stands at Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The thermal insulation covering the lower stages of the rocket will be manually removed in the final hours of the countdown. Credit: Orbital ATK

Developed by the military's Operationally Responsive Space office, the spacecraft fills a looming data gap expected once the Air Force's current Space Based Space Surveillance Block 10 satellite ends its mission, and before a follow-on program is ready for liftoff.

Named ORS-5, or SensorSat, the spacecraft will ride a Minotaur 4 rocket into orbit from Complex 46, a long-dormant launch pad located near the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral.

A four-hour launch window opens at 11:15 p.m. EDT Friday (0315 GMT Saturday).

Forecasters from the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron predict a 60 percent chance conditions will be acceptable for liftoff Friday night. Their primary worry is with cumulus and thick clouds over the launch site influenced by a nearby tropical wave.

The five-stage booster is comprised of three modified solid-fueled rocket motors from the Air Force's decommissioned Peacekeeper missile stockpile, and two commercially-produced stages to inject the ORS-5 satellite into orbit.

Friday night's launch will be the first Minotaur flight from Cape Canaveral. Fifteen previous Minotaur missions, all using retired Minuteman or Peacekeeper missile parts, have launched satellites into orbit from pads in California, Virginia and Alaska.

The $87.5 million ORS-5 mission is the latest in a line of relatively low-cost military projects managed by the ORS office. Previous ORS missions have tested plug-and-play satellite technology, deployed experimental imaging and data relay satellites, and demonstrated an autonomous rocket destruct mechanism now used on commercial launchers.

Air Force Col. Shahnaz Punjani, director of the ORS office, compared the ORS-5 satellite's function to the A-10 attack jet, an aircraft that carries a powerful armor-piercing cannon.

"When people talk about the A-10 aircraft, (they say) it's really a gun with an airplane wrapped around it," Punjani said. "In this case, the ORS-5 satellite is essentially a telescope in low Earth orbit with a spacecraft wrapped around it, looking at the geosynchronous belt."

Another way to look at it is to compare the ORS-5 satellite to an airport radar, said Grant Stokes, head of the space systems and technology division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, wh ere the spacecraft was developed and manufactured.

"It's sort of analogous to a surveillance radar at an airport, which goes around and around, surveilling the domain," Stokes told reporters in a prelaunch briefing Thursday. "Once per orbit, what ORS-5 will do is scan the GEO (geosynchronous) belt and keep track, essentially, of all the items there.

"The GEO belt is particularly important," Stokes said. "There's a huge collection of satellites there, and a tremendous amount of economic value in that special orbit, so it is one that generally we want to keep fairly good tabs on what's there and wh ere things are."


Technicians pose with the ORS-5, or SensorSat, spacecraft. Credit: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Satellites in geosynchronous orbit nearly 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) above the equator orbit Earth at the same rate the planet rotates. The effect at that altitude keeps satellites over the same geographic position at all times.

Designed for a three-year mission, ORS-5 should feed military officials data on how objects are moving around geosynchronous orbit. After identifying which objects might be threats, the Air Force could task the more capable SBSS Block 10 satellite to take better pictures, or send one of the military's four close-up inspection satellites in geosynchronous orbit to take a closer look, according to Lt. Col. Heather Bogstie, ORS-5 program manager.

The data output from ORS-5 "gives you dots on a screen," Stokes said.

"We very carefully measure how bright they are, but it does not resolve in any way," he said. "It's a dot at a distance of something like 40,000 kilometers (nearly 25,000 miles)."

Punjani said the ORS-5 satellite is a "change detection agent" to collect imagery of broad swaths of space. In keeping with the ORS program's low-cost ethos, the ORS-5 mission was conceived to meet minimum standards required by the military's space surveillance division, without the bells and whistles on more expensive spacecraft.

The SBSS Block 10 satellite launched in September 2010 cost more than $800 million, around 10 times more than ORS-5.

SBSS Block 10 will exceed its seven-year design life later this year, and a full-up replacement satellite is not expected to launch until at least 2021.

"When you look at how ORS builds our satellites, we're going to go small," Punjani said. "We're going to go to threshold requirements, and then we're going to hold to those requirements and not change those requirements throughout the life cycle, in order to ensure we rapidly acquire these programs. This program was done within three years, compared to other satellite programs that have a five-to-ten year life cycle."

The Air Force said the ORS-5 satellite itself cost around $49 million. Another $27.2 million went toward purchasing the Minotaur 4 launch from Orbital ATK, the rocket's commercial operator, and ground systems cost $11.3 million.


The top of Orbital ATK's Minotaur 4 rocket ready for launch with the ORS-5 satellite. Credit: Orbital ATK

The military needed a dedicated rocket for the ORS-5 mission because of its unique orbit 372 miles (600 kilometers) directly over the equator. That type of orbit required the Air Force and Orbital ATK to base the launch from Cape Canaveral instead of from an already-used Minotaur pad at Wallops Island, Virginia.

Officials looked at several launch options, including building a temporary Minotaur launch pad at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, or at the European-run Guiana Space Center in South America.

The cheapest and least risky option ended up being an uprated Minotaur 4 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral.

The Minotaur 4 usually comes with four stages, but the ORS-5 satellite's equator-hugging orbit needed an extra boost. Instead of flying with a single Orion 38 rocket motor on top of the Peacekeeper missile stack, Friday night's launch will carry two Orion 38 stages.

It was a case of necessity breeding invention, officials said.

The Minotaur 4, which stands about eight stories tall, will take off from pad 46, a complex which last hosted a launch in 1999. Space Florida, an arm of the state government, paid $6.6 million to refurbish the launch pad for the ORS-5 mission and future launch opportunities, according to Jim Kuzma, Space Florida's chief operating officer.

Heading east from Florida's Space Coast, the Minotaur 4 will race into the sky on top of a half-million pounds of thrust before dropping its Peacekeeper first stage into the Atlantic Ocean about a minute after liftoff.

Two more Peacekeeper motors will fire back-to-back until T+plus 3 minutes, 17 seconds. The Minotaur's nose cone will jettison during the third stage burn once the rocket flies into space.

The three Peacekeeper rocket stages were originally manufactured and packed with solid fuel in the 1980s. The motors launching Friday are 28, 29 and 30 years old, according to Lt. Col. Chad Melone, division chief of the Space and Missile Systems Center's launch enterprise services directorate.

The motors were stored at Hill Air Force Base in Utah until they were pulled from the military's stockpile. Technicians repainted the rocket stages and handed them over to Orbital ATK, which installed avionics and other equipment to make them ready for a satellite launch.

The Minotaur's Orion 38 fourth stage will ignite around 14 minutes into the flight, burning for approximately one minute to reach an elliptical, oval-shaped orbit ranging in altitude between 248 miles and 372 miles (400-600 kilometers). The temporary parking orbit will have a tilt of 24.5 degrees to the equator.

Three CubeSats will release from the Minotaur rocket beginning about 17 minutes after launch.

The secondary payloads include two 1.5-unit CubeSats, weighing around 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) each, from Los Alamos National Laboratory. A larger shoebox-sized CubeSat from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, with a weight around 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms) is also hitching a ride.

Soon after the CubeSat deployments, the fourth and fifth stages of the Minotaur 4 will detach. The final Orion 38 stage will fire for a little more than a minute to circularize ORS-5's orbit at 372 miles and steer it onto a course that stays over the equator.

Separation of the ORS-5 satellite from the Minotaur 4 rocket is expected at T+plus 28 minutes, 28 seconds.
[свернуть]

tnt22

Цитировать08/25/2017 16:15
A U.S. military satellite awaiting launch Friday night from Cape Canaveral is small enough to fit on a coffee table, but it will punch above its weight, scanning a region more than 20,000 miles above Earth to catalog spacecraft movements and space junk.
Спойлер
The 249-pound (113-kilogram) spacecraft carries a telescope and a camera to locate and help track objects in geosynchronous orbit, a belt thousands of miles over the equator home to commercial and military communications, surveillance and weather satellites.

Developed by the military's Operationally Responsive Space office, the spacecraft fills a looming data gap expected once the Air Force's current Space Based Space Surveillance Block 10 satellite ends its mission, and before a follow-on program is ready for liftoff.

Named ORS-5, or SensorSat, the spacecraft will ride a Minotaur 4 rocket into orbit from Complex 46, a long-dormant launch pad located near the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral.

A four-hour launch window opens at 11:15 p.m. EDT Friday (0315 GMT Saturday).

Read our full story.
[свернуть]

tnt22

http://spaceflight101.com/ors-5/minotaur-iv-ors-5-launch-preview/
ЦитироватьMinotaur IV Stands Ready to Fire Off fr om Cape Canaveral with ORS-5 Space Surveillance Satellite
August 25, 2017

Orbital ATK's Minotaur rocket is set for its first launch fr om Cape Canaveral Friday night, tasked with carrying into orbit the ORS-5 mission for the U.S. Air Force comprising the SensorSat space surveillance spacecraft and three CubeSats riding shotgun with the primary payload. The mission has a four-hour launch window opening at 3:15 UTC on Saturday, 11:15 p.m. local time on Friday.

Friday night's mission is one for the history books as the first flight of a Minotaur rocket fr om Cape Canaveral and it will also set the record for the largest inclination change ever carried out in Low Earth Orbit, aiming to place the 113-Kilogram SensorSat into an equatorial orbit from wh ere it can monitor activity in the Geostationary Belt wh ere the world's communications, TV and weather satellites reside.
Спойлер

Photo: Orbital ATK

The mission uses a modified Minotaur IV rocket, featuring the standard stack of three government-furnished Peacekeeper missile stages and a solid-fueled Orion 38 acting as fourth stage plus another Orion 38 sitting on top to complete the major plane change from the initial parking orbit inclined 24.5 degrees into an orbit with zero inclination, directly above the equator.


Populated GEO Regime – Image: Analytical Graphics, Inc.

Geostationary Orbit is arguably among the most important orbital regimes for commercial and government communications, meteorology and intelligence-gathering. Given its importance for national security, there is a strong desire to monitor activity in Geostationary Orbit to identify threats arising from a large population of debris and zombie satellites as well as potentially purposeful action by a foreign entity to impede the operation of another nation's space assets.

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) has received growing attention in recent years as several countries develop space systems that could potentially be used for harmful action against another satellite. SSA can be accomplished through tracking sizeable objects with radars or optical sensors on the ground as well as space-based systems monitoring activity from different orbits to deliver advance warning of any potential threats.


Photo: Lincoln Lab / MIT

The U.S. currently operates two pairs of 'patrol satellites' under the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, using optical sensors for close-up characterization of objects in Geostationary Orbit and likely employing radio sensors to track radio emissions from satellites as an indicator of satellite identity and activity. The GSSAP satellites typically roam below and above GEO and have extensive maneuvering capabilities to link up with any object of interest.

Although GSSAP is useful for close-up characterization, the satellites can only monitor a small sector of the GEO Belt and can not deliver an overview of activity ongoing throughout the GEO regime. This is wh ere SensorSat comes in – circling the Earth 600 Kilometers above the equator and staring up 35,000 Kilometers to Geostationary Orbit with a high-fidelity optical system to scan each object in GEO more than a dozen times per day.

SensorSat is a gap filler between the Space-Based Space Surveillance System SBSS-1 pathfinder launched in 2010 and an operational SBSS solution that has yet to be funded. Developed at MIT / Lincoln Lab, SensorSat comes with a price tag of $87.5 million including the launch vehicle – only a tenth of the SBSS-1 project as cost was made a primary driver of this mission to demonstrate cost-effective technology that is sufficient for Geosynchronous SSA and to develop an enabler mission for future responsive, taskable sensors for various applications.

>> SensorSat Mission Overview


Photo: MIT/Lincoln Lab

SensorSat's secret lies within its observation geometry that revolves around what is known as the 'magic angle' – pointing the spacecraft's telescope to a portion of the GEO Belt well ahead of its own position so that the sensor's velocity perpendicular to its line of sight exactly matches the target satellite velocity perpendicular to the vector joining the two. This way, the target satellite can remain momentarily motionless against the celestial background, allowing for longer exposure times to create a much higher sensitivity & pick up fainter (smaller) objects.

SensorSat will operate in a circular orbit 600 Kilometers in altitude, at zero inclination. Over the course of the mission, the satellite's altitude will decline as a result of drag, requiring constant adjustments to maintain the magic angle with decreasing altitude. The satellite is expected to operate for at least three years and prove the concepts for a possible future constellation of optical spacecraft keeping tabs on activity in GEO and other orbits.


Photo: Orbital ATK

Called upon for the launch of SensorSat is Orbital ATK's Minotaur IV rocket, flying in a modified version to accomplish the equatorial injection. The Minotaur family of rockets is operated by Orbital ATK under the Orbital/Suborbital Program (OSP-3) by the U.S. Air Force that combines government-provided missile stages from the Peacekeeper and Minotaur programs with commercial upper stages and avionics to create cost-effective launch systems for government missions.

As a cost-driven mission, SensorSat was looking for cheap launchers and settled on the Minotaur IV with a launch cost of $27.2 million, significantly less than a fully commercial alternative like Orbital's Pegasus. It will be the 26th launch for the Minotaur family and the first from Cape Canaveral, using Space Launch Complex 46 that was utilized for Trident II test flights in the 1980s, Athena launches in the 1990s and has since been turned over to Space Florida for commercial and government use. SLC-46 will be the site of the ORS-5 mission, support the Orion Crew Vehicle Ascent Abort 2 test in 2018 and has been chosen by Vector Space Systems for their Vector-R space launch vehicle.

Minotaur IV, a family of launchers comprising a lite, baseline and IV+ version, has flown five times since 2010 on two sub-orbital and three orbital missions, using Alaska's Kodiak launch complex and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Although launch capabilities for Minotaur IV exist at the Wallops Flight Facility, the ORS-5 mission needed a site closer to the equator in order to achieve its target orbit and Orbital ATK opted for Cape Canaveral after also studying the possibility of launching from the Guiana Space Center in South America.

>> Minotaur IV Launch Vehicle Overview


Photo: Orbital ATK

The Minotaur IV version flying Friday night is a five-stage vehicle, using three Peacekeeper stages that will fire in close succession and an initial Orion 38 Solid Rocket Motor will inject the stack into an orbit near 600km in altitude and at the Cape's typical inclination of 28.5°. Three government-operated CubeSats will be dropped off in this initial orbit followed by the firing of the second Orion 38 that will accomplish the reduction of inclination into the desired equatorial orbit.

Minotaur IV stands 23.9 meters tall, is 2.34 meters in diameter and weighs 87 metric tons at liftoff, capable of placing up to 1,591 Kilograms into Low Earth Orbit when flying in its baseline four-stage configuration. As an all-solid launch vehicle, Minotaur does not require dynamic countdown events like propellant loading, using a compressed testing timeline to validate all onboard avionics are functional before pressing into final preparatory steps like flight software load, transition to internal power and flight termination system arming in the final minutes of the count.

Thundering into the night, Minotaur IV will fire its SR-118 first stage for 56.5 seconds, delivering 227 metric-ton-force of thrust and consuming 49 metric tons of solid propellant. The first stage will accelerate the vehicle to a speed of 1.32 Kilometers per second, separating from the second stage 25.7 Kilometers in altitude. SR-119 generates 125 metric ton-force of thrust for a burn of 58 seconds to boost the rocket's speed to 3.9 Kilometers per second, burning 25 metric tons of propellant.

>> Launch Profile

Thrust tail-off on the second stage will be followed by 11 seconds of coasting before staging at an altitude of 105.5 Kilometers, with the third stage immediately igniting on its burn of 72.6 seconds. Generating 29.5 metric tons of thrust, the third stage will accelerate the stack to a speed of 6.88 Kilometers per second, placing the two Orion 38 stages and payload assembly onto a sub-orbital arc. There will be a 10-minute and 27-second coast phase to allow the stack to climb from 194 to 571 Kilometers in altitude so that the initial Orion 38 burn can inject the stack into a Parking Orbit.

Stage 3 separation is planned 13 minutes and 44.4 seconds after launch, to be followed by Stage 4 ignition at T+13:55 for a burn of 66.6 seconds.


Photo: MIT / Lincoln Lab

Orion 38 is 1.34 meters long and 0.97m in diameter, packed with 770 Kilograms of propellant to deliver a peak thrust of 3,765-Kilogram-force, using energy management to accomplish accurate orbital injections. The first Orion 38 is tasked with lifting the stack into an orbit of approximately 400 by 600 Kilometers, 24.5 degrees.

Minotaur IV will release three CubeSats during a ten-minute coast phase after fourth stage burnout, starting two minutes after thrust tail-off with 30 seconds in between deployment events. Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries arranged the secondary payload flight opportunity on the ORS-5 mission for two 1.5 CubeSats built at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a 3U CubeSat for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA.

Separation of the fourth stage is expected 25 minutes and eight seconds into the flight and the second Orion 38 will ignite 11 seconds later, completing its firing out of plane to reduce the orbital inclination to zero degrees and raise the low point of the orbit to reach the target circular orbit at 600 Kilometers.

SensorSat separation is targeting T+28 minutes and 28 seconds into a perfect equator-hugging orbit to begin its mission of tracking activity around Earth's prime orbital real estate. For Minotaur, the mission ends with venting of reaction control system propellant, set to be complete at T+37 minutes.
[свернуть]

tnt22

http://spaceflight101.com/ors-5/flight-profile/
Цитировать
Minotaur IV - ORS-5 - Launch Profile
Launch Data
Спойлер
Launch Vehicle: Minotaur IV - Orion 38
Launch Site: SLC-26 Cape Canaveral
Launch Date: August 26, 2017
Window: 03:15-07:15 UTC
Payload: ORS-5 (140kg)
Satellites: SensorSat (113kg), 3 CubeSats
 
Backup Date: August 27, 2017

Target Orbit:
Type: Equatorial Low Earth Orbit
Perigee: 600 Kilometers
Apogee: 600 Kilometers
Inclination: 0.0 °


Photo: U.S. Air
[свернуть]

Launch Timeline
Спойлер
[TH]Time[/TH] [TH]Event[/TH] [TH]Altitude (km)[/TH] [TH]Velocity (km/s)[/TH] [TH]Range (km)[/TH]
T+00:00SR-118 Ignition & LIFTOFF0.000.000.00
T+00:36Maximum Dynamic Pressure9.970.726.02
T+00:56.5Stage 1 Sep / SR-119 Ignition25.651.3220.38
T+01:54Stage 2 Burnout92.653.86141.67
T+02:05Stage 2 Sep / SR-120 Ignition105.463.84177.49
T+02:24Payload Fairing Separation130.104.35252.38
T+03:17.5Stage 3 Burnout194.006.88529.20
T+13:44.5Stage 3 Separation571.496.384369.15
T+13:55Orion-38 (Stage 4) Ignition572.776.384433.55
T+15:02Stage 4 Burnout578.017.074840.23
T+17:02CubeSat #1 Separation
T+17:32CubeSat #2 Separation
T+18:02CubeSat #3 Separation
T+25:08Stage 4 Separation598.837.058746.92
T+25:18.5Orion-38 (Stage 5) Ignition598.827.058817.70
T+26:27.5Stage 5 Burnout600.707.059256.20
T+28:27.5Sensor Sat Separation600.787.059935.89
T+33:27.5Reaction Control System Blowdown600.307.0511622.42
T+36:48End of Mission599.537.0512728.85
                
Image: Orbital ATK
[свернуть]

tnt22


tnt22

ЦитироватьSMC ORS-5 Launch Broadcast Video

Space and Missile Systems Center Los Angeles AFB

Опубликовано: 25 авг. 2017 г.

The Operational Readiness Space Office, located at Kirtland AFB, plans and prepares for the rapid development of highly responsive space capabilities that enable delivery of timely warfighting effects and, when directed, develop and support deployment and operations of these capabilities to enhance and assure support to Joint Force Commanders' and other users' needs for on-demand space support, augmentation and reconstitution. ORS' latest satellite ORS-5 is launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite will provide deliver space situational awareness capabilities at a significantly reduced cost compared to larger, more complex satellites, and serves as a gap filler mission for the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) Block 10 mission, originally launched in 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwz0tvcrcCshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwz0tvcrcCs (4:34)

tnt22