Atlas 5 Rocket to Return to Flight on June 24

United Launch Alliance says it has identified and resolved the problem on its most recent Atlas 5 launch, a March 22 flight for Orbital ATK that successfully delivered the unmanned Cygnus space station resupply vehicle to orbit.

In a statement June 15, the Denver-based company said an “unexpected shift in fuel pressure differential” across a mixture ratio control valve in the RD-180 engine, nearly four minutes after liftoff, caused the engine to run oxidizer-rich.

That depleted the supply of liquid oxygen and shut down the engine prematurely, even though there was still “significant fuel” left on the first stage. Atlas 5’s Centaur upper stage compensated for the first stage performance shortfall with an extended burn, delivering Cygnus to its intended orbit “well within the required accuracy.”

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Compromise Reached on Russian RD-180 Rocket Engine Use by USAF

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) brokered an agreement among Senators who have been at sharp odds over how to transition U.S. rocket launches away from reliance on Russian RD-180 engines to a new American-made engine. The Nelson amendment passed the Senate this morning by voice vote as part of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA itself then passed the Senate by a vote of 85-13.

In brief, the compromise sets December 31, 2022 as the end date for use of the RD-180 by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) for Atlas V launches of national security satellites. It also limits to 18 the number of RD-180s that can be used between the date that the FY2017 NDAA is signed into law (enacted) and that end date.

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Bigelow Launching Commercial Hab Module in 2020 on Atlas V

Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced they are joining forces to develop and launch the world’s first commercial space habitat to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) by 2020 – potentially as a huge and revolutionary new addition to the International Space Station (ISS).

The expandable habitat will be based on the Bigelow Aerospace B330 module and would be carried to orbit on the most powerful version of ULA’s venerable Atlas V rocket.

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The Tests for the Starliner Spacecraft and the Atlas V Coming up

Boeing and United Launch Alliance (ULA) are continuing preparations ahead of Atlas V launches with the Starliner spacecraft. Formerly know as the CST-100, the spacecraft is scheduled to begin test flights next year, with progress towards that milestone visible at the launch pad and in the processing facilities – but also on the paperwork, with launch processing requirements now revealing a “dry test” ahead of launch.

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US Lawmakers Clash Over Russian RD-180 Rocket Engines

A Colorado lawmaker says the U.S. Air Force’s first competitive launch procurement in a decade was “prejudiced” against incumbent United Launch Alliance, which has effectively ceded the work to archrival SpaceX.

In a Nov. 25 news release, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), a member of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, which oversees military space, asked the Air Force to review and explain its bidding requirements for the 2018 launch of a GPS 3 navigation satellite.

The announcement is the latest salvo in jockeying among lawmakers over the Defense Department’s newly competitive satellite launching program.

On Nov. 19, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who chairs the Senate Armed Service Committee, asked the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), to reject the idea of inserting a provision into a must-pass federal spending bill that would give the U.S. military access to a controversial Russian rocket engine until an alternative becomes available.

That provision, if approved, would effectively neutralize the ban on the use of Russian engines for national security launches imposed by Congress following Russia’s incursion into Ukraine in 2014. Denver-based ULA, whose workhorse Atlas 5 rocket is powered by the Russian-built RD-180 engine, has said the ban will leave it unable to compete for future U.S. military business against SpaceX of Hawthorne, California.

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The clash has worsened and McCain is considering a wider ban on the RD-180.

Atlas V Cygnus Launched Successfully Yesterday, Cygnus on Orbit and Headed to ISS

more info.

The Cygnus launch seen from ISS.

Cygnus Atlas V Launch for Space Station Resupply in 30 Minutes

streaming video here.

More info here.

Atlas V Cygnus Space Station Resupply Mission at 5:55 PM ET Thursday

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This will be a bit of a make or break, I'd think, for Orbital ATK for the next round of the resupply contracts to the space station.

I'll post a live feed link an hour before the launch if I am able.

Orbital ATK's Cygnus Encapsuled For March 2016 Launch on an Atlas V

Preparations for the first launch of a Cygnus cargo spacecraft in more than a year, and the first on an Atlas 5 rocket, have gone smoothly despite some changes in timing of loading cargo on the spacecraft, an Orbital ATK executive said.

An Atlas 5 is scheduled to launch the Cygnus craft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Dec. 3. The launch will be the first for the Cygnus since the October 2014 failure of Orbital’s Antares rocket shortly after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia.

Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital purchased the Atlas 5 launch from United Launch Alliance shortly after the failure, and in August acquired a second Atlas 5 for a Cygnus mission planned for March 2016. While the Cygnus has not previously flown on the Atlas, integrating the cargo spacecraft to the rocket has gone well.

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McCain Blasts the United Launch Alliance for Manufacturing a Crisis

Just days after United Launch Alliance dropped out of the Pentagon’s competition to send satellites into space, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee accused the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture of attempting to “manufacture a crisis” for military space launch.

“Recent attempts by the incumbent contractor to manufacture a crisis by prematurely diminishing its stockpile of engines purchased prior to the Russian invasion of Crimea should be viewed with skepticism and scrutinized heavily,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wrote in a Thursday letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

ULA’s dropping out of the Air Force’s GPS III Launch Services completion, a crucial phase of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, should not be “misconstrued” as a reason to undermine planned sanctions on Russia, McCain warned.

By bowing out, ULA made good on its threat to skip the competition unless it got relief from the Fiscal Year 2015 defense budget's ban on the use of Russian RD-180 rocket engines for military satellite launches after 2019. ULA, which relies on the Russian RD-180 rocket engine to power its Atlas V rocket, earlier this year begged the Defense Department for some relief from the ban, which was established in response to Moscow's annexation of Crimea last year. But the Pentagon refused.

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McCain is also urging lawmakers to uphold the ban on more RD-180s.

Boeing on Track for Spring 2017 Launch of CST-100 Starliner Capsule

Boeing is making impressive strides on a series of tests and technical verifications for their CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. With Boeing and NASA now working through a Test and Verification Control Board meeting this month and Atlas V launch pad infrastructure build progressing on schedule, Boeing remains on track to launch their commercial crew spacecraft on its maiden voyage in spring 2017.

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The plot twist is the availability of RD-180 engines for the Atlas V rocket it is supposed to be flying on.

Pentagon Tells United Launch Alliance: No More Russian RD-180 Rocket Engines for you!

On Friday, the Pentagon denied a request from United Launch Alliance for a waiver from a U.S. law that limits the use of the Russian-made RD-180 engine in the first stage of the company’s Atlas V rocket for military and reconnaissance launches.

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Orbital ATK’s Cygnus Returning to Space Station on ULA Atlas V in December

Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft is set to return to International Space Station (ISS) resupply duties in December, hitching a ride on an Atlas V, prior to resuming operations with the modified Antares rocket in 2016. Cygnus has been out of action since the CRS-3/OrB-3 failure that occurred in October 2014 – with the full investigation results yet to be released to the public.

The return of Cygnus resupply missions will prove to be a welcome boost for the ISS, following an unprecedented loss of three Visiting Vehicle missions in close succession, including the OrB-3 Cygnus that was lost shortly after launch.

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Aerojet Wants to Take Over Atlas V Rocket Production, Use its AR-1 Rocket Engine

Rocket engine builder Aerojet Rocketdyne, in partnership with two other companies, is interested in obtaining the production and launch rights to United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket, currently the mainstay of the U.S. military fleet.

In theory, the consortium would use Aerojet’s AR-1 engine, currently in development, to replace the controversial Russian-made RD-180 engine used on the Atlas 5 today. The consortium includes Dynetics, the Huntsville, Alabama-based engineering company, and Shafer Corp., the Arlington, Virginia-based science and engineering contractor led by former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin.

Denver-based ULA said in a May 11 email to SpaceNews that the company has “no intention of selling or transferring” the Atlas 5 production rights, a move that would create a new competitor in the national security launch market.

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US Congress Continues to Rake US Air Force Over for Russian Rocket Engines

As tensions continue to escalate in Ukraine, U.S. lawmakers want to know how the Air Force plans to replace Russian-made rocket engines used to launch military satellites.

The Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, or EELV, program relies on the Russian RD-180 as the main engine on its Atlas V boosters.

Critics argue this is a risky practice since the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is deteriorating over the deployment of Russian troops and equipment into Crimea amid political and social unrest in southern Ukraine.

“It’s no secret that we have had some differences with Russia in the last few months,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee. “And yet in at least one important area we are dependent on Russia in terms of our American national defense.”

United Launch Alliance LLC, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., is the sole provider of medium and heavy lift rockets for the EELV program. ULA officials have assured lawmakers that it has a two-year supply of RD180 engines.

But Durbin said he is concerned it could cost up to $1 billion over five years if ULA produces the engines domestically.

“If we decided to produce this engine domestically, clearly we have a big bill to pay,” said Durbin, who asked Air Force leaders to explain their plans to resolve the issue during an April 2 hearing.

The Air Force is currently reviewing alternatives to the Russian engines in case the former communist country decides to stop supplying ULA with engines, said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James.

“We have initiated a review, which is due at the end of May, to get to the bottom of some of these questions and more importantly to provide some answers that if we did have it shut off, what would it mean?” she said. “I have learned spare parts are very important so that is a question that the review is also going to look at is do we have the spare parts for the two years … We are studying it quickly, and we hope to have some more answers shortly.”

Durbin questioned why the proposed budget seems to put “most of our faith in the ULA project to continue despite the question mark about Russian sources.”

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