РН Вулкан - Vulcan Centaur heavy-lift launch vehicle (Планов громадье в ULA)

[silentpom]

Salo пишет:
В свете крайней аварии F9 смысл просматривается?

фалкон можно голой дельтой-4 дублировать.

[Антон]

silentpom пишет:
а зачем? там богатый набор бустеров. Кто нить из любителей знает, на какие именно атласы хотят потратить оставшиеся запасы РД-180? Там вроде самый популярный был 401, а теперь смысла в нем нет, он слабее фалкон-9

ну слабее, но как правило и его хватает. 
Зачем платить больше за бустер? 

[Антон]

silentpom пишет:

Salo пишет:
В свете крайней аварии F9 смысл просматривается?

фалкон можно голой дельтой-4 дублировать.

голую дельту убить хотят ироды  :cry:

[Floppy Disk]

Фирмы США могут разработать более дешевый аналог российскому двигателю

РД-180 используются в первой ступени американских ракет Atlas, пока промышленность США не производит аналогов российских двигателей. Американский двигатель будет на треть дешевле российского, сообщила вице-президент Aerojet Rocketdyne Джули ван Клик.

ВАШИНГТОН, 26 июн — РИА Новости. Американские компании ракетно-космической отрасли готовы к 2019 году разработать двигатель на замену российскому РД-180 к 2019 году и обещают, что он будет дешевле.
РД-180 используются в первой ступени американских ракет Atlas, пока промышленность США не производит аналогов российских двигателей.
В пятницу в комитете по вооруженным силам палаты представителей конгресса США прошли слушания по вопросу создания американских ракетно-космических двигателей с участием руководства ведущих компаний США в этой области — United Launch Alliance (совместное предприятие Lockheed Martin Corp и Boeing), Blue Origin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, SpaceEx.
"Мы готовы завершить испытания и сертификацию двигателя к 2019 году", — сообщила вице-президент Aerojet Rocketdyne Джули ван Клик. Она добавила, что это будет полностью новый двигатель, а не аналог российского, поскольку "производить российский — слишком дорого, поскольку он очень сложный".
"Наш двигатель будет на треть дешевле российского", — отметил президент United Launch Alliance Сальватор Бруно. Он рассказал, что компания рассматривает возможность создания проекта спаренных двигателей для ракетоносителей вместо одного РД-180, который сейчас используется.
В то же время представители компаний не назвали даже примерную стоимость работ и самого двигателя.
Палата представителей конгресса США в декабре 2014 года в качестве антироссийской меры на события на Украине приняла поправку сенатора Маккейна, которая предусматривает полный отказ США от ракетных двигателей РД-180 до 2019 года. Исключение делается для контракта, заключенного консорциумом Boeing и Lockheed Martin (ULA) с российским НПО "Энергомаш" до 2019 года. Сообщалось, что конгресс выделил 220 миллионов долларов на разработку новых американских двигателей.
В марте США объявили, что проведут тендер на космические запуски в связи с планирующимся отказом от российских ракетных двигателей РД-180. Конкурс будет проведен на 28 запусков, которые планируется произвести в 2020-2024 годах.

РИА Новости http://ria.ru/space/20150626/1091217220.html#ixzz3ef84NgMp

[triage]

а что подразумевается под сертификацией?  по странице http://www.npoenergomash.ru/dejatelnost/engines/rd180/ процесс не одного года, у Маска процесс тоже длился долго, но это он.

http://ria.ru/world/20150630/1103980254.html
CМИ: США еще долго будут зависеть от российских ракетных двигателей
11:17 30.06.2015
МОСКВА, 30 июн — РИА Новости. Пентагон сможет обзавестись собственным работоспособным двигателем не ранее чем через десять лет, поэтому любые попытки отказаться от использования российского РД-180 прямо сейчас нанесут урон национальной безопасности Соединенных Штатов, пишет деловое издание The Wall Street Journal.
.....
"Согласно декабрьскому законопроекту, новый американский ракетный двигатель должен быть готов к 2019 году. ULA объявила о том, что она займется разработкой нового двигателя и новой ракеты, которая должна заменить Atlas V в ближайшем будущем. Многие эксперты сомневаются в этом, поскольку, даже если компании удастся соблюсти сроки, к этому моменту у них не будет двигателей РД-180", — пишет WSJ. Также предприятие объявило об остановке производства ракет Delta IV.
.....
Специализированный портал Defense Tech отмечает, что другой претендент на разработку двигателей для Пентагона — частная компания Blue Origin — также тратит большие средства на разработку проекта ракетного двигателя BE-4, который, по словам президента компании Боба Мейерсона, будет готов к эксплуатации в 2019 году. Тем не менее глава космического командования ВВС США генерал Джон Хайтен заявляет, что процесс сертификации новых двигателей может занять до двух лет, что означает, что любая ракета Atlas V, оснащенная новым двигателем, будет запущена не ранее 2021 года.

указанные источники

http://defensetech.org/2015/06/26/pentagon-will-rely-on-russian-rocket-engines-for-years/
.....Blue Origin LLC, the private aerospace company funded by Amazon​.com founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos, has spent a significant amount of its own money developing a possible design, called the BE-4, which will be ready to fly in 2019, according to Rob Meyerson, president of the company. (A precursor  successfully lifted off earlier this year.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, the incumbent engine-maker, is some 16 months behind that schedule, an official said. But it plans on having a certified propulsion system, known as the AR-1, around the same time, according to Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of advanced space and launch programs at the company.
Nevertheless, Gen. John Hyten, the head of Air Force Space Command, said it would probably take another year or two after that point to complete the certification process. That means any Atlas 5 rocket outfitted with a new main engine may not be ready until 2021 or later.....

WSJ долго по ссылке выбивал денег на подписку, но
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB12367224787933994021304581062191281870326
http://www.pressreader.com/belgium/the-wall-street-journal-europe/20150701/281758447945069/TextView

By WILLIAM SHELTON.....
The December legislation also mandated that a new American rocket engine be ready by 2019. United Launch Alliance has announced that it will develop a new engine, and a new rocket, to replace the Atlas V, and will do so on time. Many experts are dubious about this timetable. Yet even if United Launch Alliance can meet the deadline, it will run out of RD-180 engines well before its new rocket is ready. United Launch Alliance has also announced that it will stop production of its far more expensive Delta IV (with the exception of a variant that can lift the heaviest U.S. satellites).

ну Дельту 4 не сразу под нож... хорошенько там монополию упоминули.

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/air-force-says-ula-will-need-18-22-rd-180s-to-compete-with-spacex/

Air Force Says ULA Will Need 18-22 RD-180s To Compete with SpaceX
by Mike Gruss — July 27, 2015

U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told lawmakers in April United Launch Alliance would need at least 18 Russian engines to remain competitive. Credit: U.S. Air Force/Jim Varhegyi  
 
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Air Force contends United Launch Alliance needs as many as 22 RD-180 rocket engines to compete against SpaceX for dozens of national security launches that start going out for bid later this year, according to a U.S. senator.
ULA has ordered 29 RD-180 engines fr om Russia for its Atlas 5 rocket. Fifteen of those engines are for Air Force launches already under contract. The remaining 14 are what ULA has said it needs to import in order to compete for military launches until its next generation rocket, known as Vulcan and powered by a U.S.-made engine, is ready around 2020.
The Air Force plans to begin soliciting bids later this year for an initial batch of nine missions, all of which Air Force officials say Atlas 5 is suited to launch. A further 28 missions will be put out for bid starting in 2018, with 25 of those suited to the Atlas 5.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee in April that ULA needs to be allowed to buy 18 RD-180 engines for missions not already under contract in order to ensure the government receives competing bids when it buys launch services over the next several years.
But the Air Force now appears to be revising that estimate upward, complicating its quest for relief from a 2015 law barring the RD-180's use for future military launches.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, told James in a July 15 letter that Air Force leaders, including Gen. Mark Welsh, the service's chief of staff, told him ULA needed to be allowed to buy 18 to 22 engines to maintain uninterrupted access to space and ensure competition.
Responding on James' behalf the next day, Bill LaPlante, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, told Shelby that 18 engines "is a reasonable starting point" for enabling competition while ensuring national security payloads do not get stranded on the ground by a single launch failure.
"As the competitive environment develops and evolves, we will re-assess the number of engines required to ensure we maintain assured access to space," LaPlante wrote in his July 16 letter.
The Air Force is required by law to phase out its use of the RD-180 under legislation Congress enacted last year following Russia's incursion into Ukraine.
Specifically, the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act bars the Defense Department from entering into new contracts or modifying existing contracts for launch services with companies that rely on Russian suppliers.
Because ULA has only partially paid for the 14 engines it ordered from the RD-180's Florida-based importer RD-Amross in anticipation of winning new Air Force business, Pentagon lawyers have said a strict interpretation of the law could lim it ULA to using just five of those engines for the upcoming launch competitions.
That could eventually create a new national security launch monopoly in SpaceX, the Air Force has said.
Both ULA and the Air Force have asked Congress for legislative relief to prevent Atlas 5 from being disqualified from all but a small handful of upcoming launch awards.
While lawmakers appear inclined to grant it, the House and Senate are at odds over how much relief to give.
The House in May approved a defense authorization bill that would permit ULA to use all 14 on-order engines for the competitions. The Senate version of the same bill, approved in June, allows only nine. The difference is a major sticking point between leaders of the two chambers, although Capitol Hill sources expect the Senate position to prevail when the bill emerges from conference.
Neither bill, however, grants ULA the leeway to ride an RD-180-powered Atlas 5 as far into the competition as ULA and the Air Force would like.
That is OK with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has been keeping the pressure on the Air Force to end its dependence on the RD-180.
ULA says it is committed to phasing out the RD-180 and switching to Vulcan, a next-generation rocket featuring a main engine being developed by Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin.
But Vulcan is not expected to make its debut before 2019 and win certification to launch military payloads until 2022. That schedule, ULA has said, assumes no technical setbacks and that ULA does not find itself a few years from now on sitting on the sidelines with no Atlas 5 and a Delta 4 it admits is too expensive to give SpaceX's Falcon 9 a run for the Air Force's money.
If Congress does not give the Air Force the relief it thinks it needs to keep Atlas 5 in the game, the service could ask the U.S. secretary of defense for a waiver.
The 2015 law stipulates that a waiver is to be used for "the national security interests of the United States" and when space launch services could not otherwise be obtained at a fair and reasonable price.
Air Force officials have been studying how and when to potentially use the waiver.
But for now, the Air Force is focusing on getting Congress to change the law.
"The Department is working closely with Congress to request some relief from the FY15 [National Defense Authorization Act] language in order to guarantee assured access to space while maintaining a competitive environment, while also transitioning expediently off Russian-made engines," Capt. Annmarie Annicelli, an Air Force spokeswoman, said in a July 22 email to SpaceNews.

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/ulas-swiss-supplier-to-build-rocket-parts-in-alabama/

ULA's Swiss Supplier To Build Rocket Parts in Alabama
by Peter B. de Selding — August 4, 2015

Final assembly of payload fairings at Ruag Space in Emmen, Switzerland. Credit: Ruag Space  
 
PARIS — Swiss rocket-component builder Ruag is opening a production line at customer United Launch Alliance's Alabama facility to replace capacity in Switzerland used to build parts for ULA's Atlas 5 rocket and to prepare for ULA's new Vulcan vehicle, ULA and Ruag announced.
Zurich-based Ruag said the move is a result of a strategic partnership with Centennial, Colorado-based ULA that will satisfy a long-standing Ruag ambition to tap into the U.S. market for government launches.

Final assembly of an Ariane 5 payload fairing at Ruag Space in Emmen, Switzerland. Credit: Ruag Space

"We have been looking to expand our market presence in the U.S. for years," Ruag said in an Aug. 4 statement in response to SpaceNews queries. "However, it has always been a chicken-and-egg problem. To establish a facility in the U.S., you need enough work, which is not so easy to get if you have no footprint in the U.S. The strategic partnership includes not only our current work for Atlas, but also contributions to the Vulcan. It is a big step for us."
Ruag has been working with ULA for a decade. In a role similar to what it does as part of Europe's Ariane rocket program, the company provides the Atlas 5 rocket's 5.4-meter payload fairing and an inter-stage adapter at facilities located in Zurich and Emmon, Switzerland.
With an equivalent work share, focused on carbon-fiber structures, planned for ULA's future Vulcan, Ruag now has enough guaranteed business to make the move. The company said it will be hiring 100 new employees in Decatur by 2019 in addition to a small contingent of current Ruag specialists who will make the move.
Ruag declined to disclose the expected capital investment it will make in the Decatur facility, but said its current work on the Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, and the Italian-led Vega light-class vehicle, will remain at the existing Swiss facilities.
ULA has announced the start of work on a new rocket, called Vulcan, that pending final funding decisions is scheduled to make a first flight in 2019. Unlike ULA's current Delta and Atlas rockets, Vulcan is part of a design-to-cost initiative that ULA hopes will reduce costs and position the company for commercial as well as U.S. government business.
"ULA has also made a business decision to switch from a metallic four-meter fairing to a newer-technology composite 4.4-meter fairing in order to capture more commercial market business," Ruag said. "The Vulcain composite 4.4-meter fairing, designed by Ruag, will be built in Decatur to support a first flight in 2019."
Europe's future Ariane 6 rocket, scheduled to enter service in 2020, is expected to use a Ruag-built upper compartment including the payload fairing and inter-stage adapter. The company is building a new facility in Emmen for the Ariane 6 work to permit more-efficient production.

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/echostar-books-a-commercial-atlas-5-for-jupiter-2/

EchoStar Explains Why Jupiter-2 is Launching on Atlas instead of Ariane
by Peter B. de Selding — August 6, 2015

The EchoStar 17 /Jupiter-1 satellite. Credit: Space Systems Loral  
 
PARIS — EchoStar Corp. on Aug. 6 said its satellite consumer broadband subscriber base surpassed 1 million in the three months ending June 30, a milestone that likely would have occurred earlier if it had additional satellite capacity in orbit.
The pressure to launch more capacity to capture unmet demand in the most promising regions of the United States, where the company's satellite beams are filled to capacity, was the chief reason EchoStar moved to launch its EchoStar 19/Jupiter-2 Ka-band satellite aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket.
The launch, to occur in late 2016, replaces earlier EchoStar plans to use Europe's Ariane 5 rocket for the satellite. Evry, France-based Arianespace has said it has no openings for large satellites like EchoStar 19/Jupiter-2 in the second half of 2016.
Given that the satellite will not be ready for a launch before July 2016, Englewood, Colorado-based EchoStar contracted with Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services for an Atlas 5, built by United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado.
In an Aug. 6 conference call with investors, EchoStar Chief Executive Michael T. Dugan suggested that EchoStar 19/Jupiter-2's final launch weight is likely to increase beyond original estimates, which could have made an Ariane 5 launch more difficult.
The Atlas 5 rocket typically launches one satellite at a time, which is sometimes an advantage when compared to the Ariane 5, whose business model relies on placing two satellites at a time into geostationary transfer orbit.
With the Atlas 5's full power dedicated to a single satellite customer, the rocket is often able to offer geostationary-orbit customers a longer in-orbit satellite life because of a more-favorable drop-off point when the satellite separates fr om the rocket.
EchoStar had hinted earlier this year that the satellite's construction schedule might make launcher selection problematic.
EchoStar has a multi-launch agreement in place with Arianespace, an agreement that remains unchanged following the decision to use Atlas 5 for EchoStar 19/Jupiter-2, Arianespace Chief Executive Stephane Israel said.
In an Aug. 6 interview, Israel said Arianepace had been fully engaged with EchoStar as the satellite's construction schedule became clearer and was neither surprised nor troubled by the Atlas decision.
"We highly value EchoStar as a long-term customer, and we are happy they have found a way to get to orbit when they need to," Israel said. "Our manifest for the second half of 2016 is full, especially for large satellites like this one. We were proactive with them in this transfer. It is a responsibility of launch-service providers to look for manifest optimization when it's for the benefit of the customers."
The Ariane 5 satellite pairing places the heavier satellite in the upper berth, with the lower berth reserved for the smaller of the two spacecraft. The Ariane 5's performance limits can be tinkered with depending on the requirements of a given launch but generally speaking, a heavier-than-usual larger satellite means Arianespace must find a lighter smaller co-passenger.
EchoStar will be paying more for the Atlas 5 launch than for an Ariane 5, but the additional in-orbit life and above all the confirmed 2016 launch date more than made up for that, EchoStar officials said during the call.
Anders N. Johnson, president of EchoStar Satellite Services, said an Atlas 5 also affords savings on launch-insurance premiums. In recent years, as both Atlas and Ariane 5 have logged flawless records, insurance officials have said there is no difference between the premiums assigned to the two rockets.
Pradman P. Kaul, president of EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems division, said the company's consumer broadband business continues to add subscribers despite the fully booked beams by focusing on regions of the United States wh ere there is less demand and tailoring services packages to them.
"We are not cutting back on sales and marketing," Kaul said during the conference call.
As of June 30, Hughes' consumer broadband service had 1,014,000 subscribers, up 15,000 from March 31. Once EchoStar 19/Jupiter-2 is in service, he said – about six moths after launch – the business will return to higher growth rates.
Kaul said the Atlas 5 launch means Hughes will be in service with its higher-speed satellite before competitor ViaSat Inc. of Carlsbad, California, deploys its ViaSat-2, which is set for tentatively set for launch in late 2016 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
Falcon Heavy has yet to fly and the June 28 failure of a Falcon 9 rocket has pushed the inaugural Falcon Heavy flight into 2016. ViaSat has said it will be on the second or third Falcon Heavy.
EchoStar officials said they had yet to settle on a detailed business plan for their S-band mobile satellite, called EchoStar 21, that is scheduled for launch in 2016. Johnson said the company is focusing on meeting the regulatory requirements of the European Commission and the 28 nations of the European Union, each of which must approve licenses.

[Александр Ч.]

[Apollo13]

Александр Ч. пишет:

Речь об ACES.

[Александр Ч.]

Да, так и есть. Сорри за неуточнение  :oops:

[Александр Ч.]

ULA and Blue Origin Announce Production Agreement for American-Made BE-4 Engine

Centennial, Colo. and Kent, Wash. – Sept. 10, 2015 – United Launch Alliance (ULA), the nation's premier space launch company, and Blue Origin, LLC, a privately-funded aerospace company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, announced today the signing of an agreement to expand production capabilities for the American-made BE-4 engine that will power the Vulcan next generation launch system. 

The BE-4 engine offers the fastest path to a domestic alternative to the Russian RD-180. Development is on schedule to achieve qualification for flight in 2017 to support the first Vulcan flight in 2019. 

"This agreement gets us closer to having an affordable, domestic and innovative engine that will help the Vulcan rocket exceed the capability of the Atlas V on its first flight and open brand new opportunities for the nation's use of space," said Tory Bruno, president and chief executive officer of ULA. "This partnership enables each company to leverage its strengths, with ULA bringing production excellence and mission assurance, and Blue Origin bringing innovative engineering concepts and a commitment to lowering the cost of spaceflight." 

"The BE-4 engine test program is well underway with more than 60 staged-combustion tests already on the books," said Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin. "This new agreement is an important step toward building BE-4s at the production rate needed for the Vulcan launch vehicle."

The Vulcan rocket brings together decades of experience on ULA's reliable Atlas and Delta vehicles, combining the best features of each to produce an all-new, American-made rocket that will enable mission success from low Earth orbit all the way to Pluto.  

The BE-4 is a liquid oxygen, liquefied natural gas (LNG) rocket engine that delivers 550,000-lbf of thrust at sea level. Two BE-4s would power each ULA Vulcan booster, providing 1,100,000-lbf thrust at liftoff.  ULA is teaming in the development of the BE-4 to enable availability for national security, civil, human and commercial missions. Development of the BE-4 engine has been underway for more than three years and testing of the BE-4 components is ongoing at Blue Origin's test facilities in West Texas.  

About United Launch Alliance 
With more than a century of combined heritage, United Launch Alliance is the nation's most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered more than 95 satellites to orbit that provide critical capabilities for troops in the field, aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, enable personal device-based GPS navigation and unlock the mysteries of our solar system. 

For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com. Join the conversation atwww.facebook.com/ulalaunch, twitter.com/ulalaunch, and instagram.com/ulalaunch.

About Blue Origin
Blue Origin, LLC (Blue Origin) is a private company developing vehicles and technologies to enable commercial human space transportation. Blue Origin has a long-term vision of greatly increasing the number of people that fly into space so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system.  For more information and a list of job openings, please visit us at www.blueorigin.com. 

[Apollo13]

Это типа гарбуза для Аэроджета.

[Seerndv]

Эк прототип вдохновил Безоса.
Ну-с, а Аэроджет таки  имеет козырь в рукаве.
И, пожалуй, не один  

[Apollo13]

На форуме NSF пишут что сделка сорвалась. Вроде инсайд.

[Александр Ч.]

Colin Clark ‏@ColinDefense  4 мин.4 минуты назад

Chris Chadwick, Boeing defense CEO, tells reporters @ #ASC15 that his company has no interest in $2B Aerojet bid for #ULA.

То бишь Боингу предложение Аэроджет не интересно.

[Apollo13]

В WSJ недавно была статья Энди Пастора, что якобы по слухам локхид хотел продать, а Боинг нет. Но возможно это был просто вброс самого аэроджета.

[Александр Ч.]

http://spacenews.com/two-top-boeing-executives-dismiss-aerojets-ula-bid/#sthash.0WHLeXmb.dpuf

WASHINGTON — Two senior Boeing executives, speaking Sept. 16 at conferences on separate continents, said the company is not seriously considering Aerojet Rocketdyne Holding's $2 billion offer for United Launch Alliance, the government launch contractor Boeing jointly owns with Lockheed Martin.
"ULA is a huge part of our strategic portfolio going forward along with our satellites and manned space business. This bid we've really not spent much time on it at all because we're focusing on a totally different direction," Chris Chadwick, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security told reporters Sept. 16 at the Air Force Association's annual technology expo in National Harbor, Maryland.
Craig Cooning, president of Boeing Network and Space Systems, speaking in Paris at Euroconsult's World Satellite Business Week conference, made similar remarks Sept. 16, saying ULA's parent companies aren't taking the bid seriously.

Boeing's Cooning says ULA's parent companies do not take Aerojet's bid for rocket maker seriously. #WSBW
— Warren Ferster (@Ferster_SN) September 16, 2015

Chadwick told reporters Boeing is giving "no serious consideration" to Aerojet Rocketdyne's offer, news of which broke Sept. 8. Aerojet, Boeing, Lockheed, and ULA  officials  previously had declined to confirm that an offer had been made for Centennial, Colorado-based ULA.
"It's not even in our expanse of thought in this period of time," Chadwick said. "Ninety-nine consecutive launches without an incident. We're the best in industry. Others are trying to obtain the record we have. We're focusing on the customer."
Chadwick said ULA's focus remains on developing Vulcan, an Atlas 5 successor that would be powered by Blue Origin's BE-4 rocket engine.
"You saw our announcement with Blue Origin and that's the path we're going to move down," Chadwick said. "We think we have a real good competitive position and we're committed to the longterm."
SpaceNews Executive Editor Warren Ferster contributed to this report from Paris.

[Александр Ч.]

Вулкан... за 134 секунды

[Grus]

Air пишет:
Сделал картинку по существующему проекту поставки РД-180 для "Атлас 5". Я правильно понимаю, что это скоро будет историей? После 2019 года американские ракеты будут стартовать на двигателях собственной разработки?

Очевидно, что все купленные РД-180 слетают в ULA. Это не до 2019.