Antares (Taurus II)

[Salo]

http://imgur.com/a/omx1C/

[sychbird]

Рискованно я бы сказал возят ребята.  :roll:

[Salo]

Ещё фото:
http://www.orbital.com/TaurusII/

[Salo]

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20101207/NEWS01/12070380/Stage-1-of-rocket-arrives-at-Wallops

[Salo]

17 декабря  специалистами центра Стенниса при поддержке команд из Orbital Sciences и Aerojet успешно проведены вторые огневые верификационные испытания двигателя Aerojet AJ26, длительностью 55 сек.
Видео - http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/aj26_20101217.html

[Theoristos]

Artist's concept of a Taurus 2 rocket on the launch pad in Virginia. Credit: Orbital Sciences

Ещё со старым вариантом ТУА

[Дмитрий В.]

Пара картинок:

[Salo]

Спасибо! :wink:

[Salo]

Aviationweek:

Launch Date Set For First Orbital COTS Demo[/size]
Jan 6, 2011
 
By Guy Norris

ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA has set Dec. 14 as the target launch date for Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) cargo demonstration mission. Meanwhile, the company says it continues to make progress with NASA toward attaining safety clearance for the mission, in which its Cygnus spacecraft will dock with the International Space Station (ISS).

The flight is scheduled to include delivery of a token cargo load using Orbital's first Cygnus visiting vehicle, a service module combined with a pressurized cargo module (PCM). It is expected to be preceded by a Taurus II "risk-reduction" mission, which is still awaiting funding approval from Congress.

The first cargo module is expected to reach Orbital's manufacturing facilities in Dulles, Va., from Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, "around April," according to Carl Walz, Orbital's vice president of human spaceflight operations.

The first service module structure — supplied from AASC of Stockton, Calif. — which will provide power and propulsion for the PCM, is at Orbital's Dulles site undergoing fit-out.

On the road to clearance for the COTS mission, Orbital has passed "17 of 21 milestones to date," says Walz, who adds that the company recently completed the first part of Phase 3 of NASA's rigorous safety review process for docking with the ISS.

Speaking at the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics aerospace science meeting here, Walz says the procedure will entail flying up to match the station's orbit before using GPS satellites to "align the system and fly automatically up the R-bar," a standard approach method based on using the radius vector to the Earth's center. "Once we're within 10 meters, we will go to 'free drift' mode and allow the ISS crew to grapple us," he adds.

Alenia has completed welding the first three PCMs and is beginning assembly work on a fourth. Preparations also have included loading simulated cargo into a PCM, Walz says. Two versions are planned — an initial module able to deliver 2,000 kg. (4,400 lb.) and a follow-on "enhanced PCM" with a capacity for 2,700 kg.

Preparations for the demonstration launch of the Taurus II from Orbital's launch complex at Wallops Island, Va., also are well underway, Walz says. The liquid-fueled Taurus II first stage is being fitted out in the H-100 cargo-processing facility on the adjacent mainland. All follow-on launch vehicles will be completed in the horizontal integration facility, which is due to open officially on Jan. 20, with the H-100 building functioning solely for payload processing in the future, he adds.

Tests of the Aerojet AJ26-62 engine that will power the first stage also continue at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where engineers are preparing for a third hot-fire test of the engine following earlier runs in November and December. "Every month we'll be bringing another AJ26 through Stennis," Walz says.

[Петр Зайцев]

Пара картинок:

Классно. Кстати мне из России передали журнал с этими картинками на бумаге.

[Дмитрий В.]

Пара картинок:

Классно. Кстати мне из России передали журнал с этими картинками на бумаге.

Знаю!

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110107-nasa-boosted-cots-funding.html

Fri, 7 January, 2011
NASA Has Boosted COTS Funding by Additional $40 Million Since October[/size]
By Amy Svitak

    WASHINGTON — NASA has boosted its investment in two logistics services being developed for the international space station by $40 million so far this year, and plans to double that payout by the end of March despite the fact that Congress has yet to appropriate the necessary funds for the effort, according to an agency official.

    The additional payouts to Orbital Sciences Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) cover newly created ground-test milestones for their respective cargo delivery systems, according to Alan Lindenmoyer, head of NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program manager. Lindenmoyer said his office has paid the companies an additional $40 million combined since the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1 and hopes to dole out another $40 million by the end of March.

    The two companies were set to split a $300 million COTS funding boost requested in the 2011 budget blueprint U.S. President Barack Obama sent lawmakers last February. But Congress has yet to adopt a spending plan for the year, instead passing a temporary appropriation Dec. 21 that leaves NASA to fund existing programs, including COTS, at last year's funding levels through March 4.

    NASA's 2010 budget included $39 million for the COTS program, under which Orbital and SpaceX are developing rockets and capsules that will ferry cargo to the space station on a commercial basis after the space shuttle retires. Both companies hold separate contracts to begin making those deliveries, which are expected to begin next year.

    Despite uncertainty about the 2011 budget, NASA is pressing ahead with the COTS funding augmentation. The values of the original SpaceX and Orbital COTS agreements are $278 million and $170 million, respectively.

    In a Jan. 5 interview, Lindenmoyer said the new COTS milestones and corresponding cash payouts were called for in the three-year authorization bill enacted in October that supported the administration's request to spend $300 million on COTS this year, despite concerns among some lawmakers that the 62 percent increase to the original $500 million COTS program budget was excessive.

    "The authorization act talked about adding additional funding to the COTS cargo agreements to reduce risk and increase the chances of success of these missions," Lindenmoyer said. "So along those lines we decided to implement at least the first quarter of those risk-reduction milestones on the two agreements [with] Orbital and SpaceX."

    SpaceX earned a $5 million cash payout from NASA Dec. 8 when it successfully completed the first of three planned demonstration flights of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule being developed with COTS funding assistance. The Hawthorne, Calif.-based startup hopes to combine the two remaining flight demos slated for later this year; Lindenmoyer said the agency is still reviewing that proposal.

    In the meantime, he said, SpaceX successfully completed four new milestones that the agency established in December and that were worth $5 million each. These included a plan to test the effect of vibrations on pressurized cargo stowed inside Dragon, followed by the successful demonstration of the test capability at the company's Hawthorne facility. A third milestone involved fully deploying Dragon's solar arrays and conducting thermal vacuum tests of some components. Finally, the company completed a ground simulation of the spacecraft's lidar sensor, used for rendezvous and proximity operations with the space station, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

    SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said the added tests would improve the likelihood of mission success.

    "These tests demonstrate the benefit of the payments-for-milestones system," she said in a Jan. 6 statement. "SpaceX only received payment after completing the tests."

    Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences, which is developing its Taurus 2 rocket and Cygnus spacecraft under its COTS agreement, garnered a $20 million payout in December for completing a mission concept review in anticipation of congressional approval for an additional test flight of the medium-class rocket. Under Orbital's current COTS agreement, the company is slated to conduct a single demo flight of Taurus 2 and Cygnus later this year.

    Lindenmoyer said he is now negotiating additional milestones to be met by the companies by the end of March. NASA is aiming for an agreement that would require SpaceX to complete a more extensive test of Dragon's lidar sensor and to secure the ground facilities needed to conduct a full-scale thermal vacuum test of the capsule. SpaceX also would need to lease or otherwise acquire the infrastructure needed to test Dragon's resistance to electromagnetic interference, Lindenmoyer said.

    For Orbital, the added milestone payments would cover preparations for the additional test flight of the Taurus 2, which, if approved, would loft a simulated Cygnus capsule late this year. Orbital would be required to complete an analysis of the revamped inaugural Taurus 2 flight and a design review of the dummy capsule.

    "Since we still don't have a full appropriation we need to see what funding is available, if any, to get any of this done," Lindenmoyer said.

    NASA Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Robinson said the agency has limited flexibility under the temporary spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, to shift money from other space exploration accounts to augment the COTS program by $300 million as proposed in the 2011 budget request.

    "Legally we can spend the [$300 million]; whether or not we can practically do it is another question," she said in a Jan. 4 interview.

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/01/09/spacex-orbital-sciences-increase-nasa-cots-funding/comment-page-1/#comment-29051

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23822.0

MEDIA ADVISORY : M11-007
 
NASA Unveiling New Rocket Integration Facility At Wallops [/size]
 
WASHINGTON -- NASA will unveil its new rocket integration facility at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 21.

The Horizontal Integration Facility will support medium class mission capabilities. The first customer to use the facility will be Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., with its Taurus II launch vehicle.

Orbital will be conducting missions for NASA under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project and Commercial Resupply Services program. Integration of the Taurus II at the facility will begin in February with launch expected later this year.

Participants in the ceremony:
- Sen. Barbara Mikulski
- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
- NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations William Gerstenmaier
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Director Rob Strain
- NASA Wallops Flight Facility Director William Wrobel
- Orbital Sciences Corp. Chairman and CEO David Thompson

Media representatives interested in attending this event must contact Keith Koehler at keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov or 757-824-1579 by noon on Wednesday, Jan. 19.

For more information about Wallops, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/wallops

[Salo]

http://www.nkau.gov.ua/nsau/newsnsau.nsf/mainsubjectsR/3AAD716B8F2FAD8DC2257803005011C2?openDocument&Lang=R

Юрий Алексеев: "Сегодня в космосе наступает такой момент, когда слово "конкуренция" уходит в прошлое..."[/size]
         
Интервью Председателя Государственного космического агентства Украины Юрия Сергеевича Алексеева газете "Киевский ТелеграфЪ" № 52 (554), 24-30 декабря 2010 года.

— Мы продолжаем выпускать ракеты "Зенит", участвовать в программе "Днепр", наступает переломный момент в проекте "Циклон-4", над которым мы работаем совместно с бразильцами. Надеемся, что вскоре возродятся пуски по программе "Морской старт" (Sea Launch).
Будет углубляться дальнейшее сотрудничество с Россией. Из недавнего — присоединение харьковского научно-исследовательского института радиотехнических измерений к программе ГЛОНАСС (российская спутниковая система навигации. — ред.).

Также в этом году американцы расширили заказ Украине в рамках производства ракеты-носителя "Таурус-2". Сначала речь шла о том, что украинские предприятия будут проектировать и изготавливать только топливный отсек первой ступени. Теперь Украина работает над двигательной установкой для 2-й ступени.

Это очень интересный проект, так как заказчик — американская корпорация "Орбитал сайенсиз", как известно, выиграла тендер на доставку грузов на МКС после 2010 года, когда полеты "шаттлов" должны прекратиться.

Мы стараемся согласовывать свои планы с заданиями международной системы GEOSS. Проект, название которого переводится как "Глобальная система изучения Земли", развивается на основе 10-летнего Плана реализации (с 2005-го по 2015 год), и в нем участвуют 75 стран и 51 организация.

[Дмитрий В.]

http://www.nkau.gov.ua/nsau/newsnsau.nsf/mainsubjectsR/3AAD716B8F2FAD8DC2257803005011C2?openDocument&Lang=R

Юрий Алексеев: "Сегодня в космосе наступает такой момент, когда слово "конкуренция" уходит в прошлое..."[/size]
         
Интервью Председателя Государственного космического агентства Украины Юрия Сергеевича Алексеева газете "Киевский ТелеграфЪ" № 52 (554), 24-30 декабря 2010 года.

— Мы продолжаем выпускать ракеты "Зенит", участвовать в программе "Днепр", наступает переломный момент в проекте "Циклон-4", над которым мы работаем совместно с бразильцами. Надеемся, что вскоре возродятся пуски по программе "Морской старт" (Sea Launch).
Будет углубляться дальнейшее сотрудничество с Россией. Из недавнего — присоединение харьковского научно-исследовательского института радиотехнических измерений к программе ГЛОНАСС (российская спутниковая система навигации. — ред.).

Также в этом году американцы расширили заказ Украине в рамках производства ракеты-носителя "Таурус-2". Сначала речь шла о том, что украинские предприятия будут проектировать и изготавливать только топливный отсек первой ступени. Теперь Украина работает над двигательной установкой для 2-й ступени.

Это очень интересный проект, так как заказчик — американская корпорация "Орбитал сайенсиз", как известно, выиграла тендер на доставку грузов на МКС после 2010 года, когда полеты "шаттлов" должны прекратиться.

Мы стараемся согласовывать свои планы с заданиями международной системы GEOSS. Проект, название которого переводится как "Глобальная система изучения Земли", развивается на основе 10-летнего Плана реализации (с 2005-го по 2015 год), и в нем участвуют 75 стран и 51 организация.

Интересно, что КБЮ возьмет за основу? РД-8?

[Salo]

Видимо пытаются пристроить его реинкарнацию РД-809:
http://www.yuzhnoye.com/?id=143&path=Aerospace%20Technology/Rocket%20Propulsion/Liquid%20Engines/Sustainers/RD-809/RD-809

Слабоват однако.

[Дмитрий В.]

Видимо пытаются пристроить его реинкарнацию РД-809:
http://www.yuzhnoye.com/?id=143&path=Aerospace%20Technology/Rocket%20Propulsion/Liquid%20Engines/Sustainers/RD-809/RD-809

Слабоват однако.

Не обязательно делать один-в-один, можно воспользоваться конструктивно-технологическим заделом.

[hecata]

Видимо пытаются пристроить его реинкарнацию РД-809:
http://www.yuzhnoye.com/?id=143&path=Aerospace%20Technology/Rocket%20Propulsion/Liquid%20Engines/Sustainers/RD-809/RD-809

Слабоват однако.

9 тонн? Вполне, вполне!

[Дмитрий В.]

9 тонн? Вполне, вполне!

На безрыбьи - и рак рыба, понятно. Но для Taurus II для второй ступени оптимальнее будет ЖРД тягой 25-35 тс. С точки зрения максимальной массы ПГ.