Cargo DreamChaser to be Flown 6 Times on ULA Vulcan Rocket

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Cargo Dream Chaser has extended its agreement with United Launch Alliance (ULA) from two to six launches during its Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) missions to the International Space Station (ISS). All six missions will launch on ULA’s new rocket, Vulcan Centaur. The move was expected but requirement confirmation given Dream Chaser’s ability to launch on several launch vehicle options.

Dream Chaser will be flying at least six missions to the ISS in the 2020s, following NASA’s contract award to SNC – along with SpaceX and Orbital ATK for the CRS2 missions.

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ULA's Plans for a Cislunar Economy

United Launch Alliance (ULA) President and CEO Tory Bruno has provided a new overview of his company’s role in a proposed “Econosphere” in space. Although it will take decades to fully realize its potential, ULA hardware is set to provide the key elements via its CisLunar 1000 roadmap, allowing numerous commercial companies to come together to create a self-sustaining community of around 1000 people in the space between the Earth and the Moon.

The CisLunar 1000 plans revolve creating an in-space economy that would tap into the vast amount of resources that could be harnessed from objects such as Near Earth Asteroids (NEA) and on the surface of the Moon.

Eventually, the community would become self-sufficient via in situ resource utilization (ISRU), while becoming economically viable via the prospecting of precious materials that are rare on Earth but abundant in space.

“What we understand today is there’s over 17,000 of these (varying range of NEAs) that come in different classes. Best estimates, there are two trillion kilograms of industrial metals residing in that region,” noted Mr. Bruno during his address to students at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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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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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 Different Paths for Reusable Rockets Taken by SpaceX and ULA

When it comes to dramatically lowering the cost of access to space, industry titans agree that reusability is key. But that’s where the unity ends, as industry upstart SpaceX and long-time launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) take two very different approaches to reusability.

Speaking at the 32nd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado this week, ULA president and chief executive Tory Bruno said it would take a series of 10 launches just to recoup the manufacturing and logistical costs associated with building and recovering a returned booster.

SpaceX’s successful Falcon 9 vertical landing on an ocean landing pad last week was undoubtedly a historic accomplishment, but ULA maintains that its engine recovery concept makes more sense from a business perspective.

Last month, the company completed a preliminary design review of its Vulcan Centaur next-generation launch vehicle, powered by dual Blue Origin BE-4 liquefied natural gas/liquid oxygen engines. It's also considering the Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-1 oxygen-rich staged combustion kerosene engine.

Eventually, the Vulcan design will be updated to jettison those engines. The engine module will be protected on its high-speed fall back to Earth by a hypercone heatshield before deploying a parachute and being caught mid-air by an awaiting helicopter.

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Aerojet is pushing hard for its AR-1 rocket engine to be used by the Vulcan rocket instead of Blue Origin's engine.

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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Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR-1 Rocket Engine Passes Design Milestone

Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc., announced it completed a key design milestone for its AR1 rocket engine this week. AR1 is an American-made engine that is being developed as a direct replacement for the Russian-made RD-180 engines that currently power launches of the majority of national security satellites to orbit for the U.S. government.

“This is one of the most important design reviews the program will undergo during its development,” said Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of Advanced Space & Launch Programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne. “As the only company domestically producing large liquid rocket engines, we apply rigorous design reviews as part of our overall development program, minimizing risk and helping ensure that we will meet the delivery schedule on a program of such national significance as AR1.”

“United Launch Alliance and Aerojet Rocketdyne have enjoyed a long relationship that spans decades,” said United Launch Alliance President and CEO, Tory Bruno. “Aerojet Rocketdyne continues to be a valued supplier and is making excellent progress on the AR1 engine development.”

Aerojet Rocketdyne’s stringent design, model, test and review process is essential for an engine developed to launch our nation’s most important national security space assets. During this design review, each of the 18 components and subsystems on the AR1 engine were thoroughly analyzed to ensure that each works properly and that once integrated, will function together seamlessly. With this review successfully completed, the company will continue with AR1 development in preparation for full-scale engine testing in 2017, and delivery of a flight-qualified engine ready for certification by 2019.

To date, AR1 has undergone more than 155 staged-combustion tests, built and successfully hot-fire tested additively manufactured components, conducted turbomachinery and valve tests, and began procurements for long-lead items.

“Our experience and proven track record of delivering highly reliable large liquid rocket engines, like the RS-25 for NASA’s Space Launch System and the RS-68 for the Delta IV launch vehicle, protects U.S. national security,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake. “We have achieved every milestone in our AR1 schedule to be ready for 2019 – we have in place the production facilities, tools, equipment, supply base and, most importantly, highly skilled employees to manufacture the AR1 engine to meet the national security needs of our nation.”

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Russian RD-180 Rocket Engine Limit Overturned, McCain Furious and Threatens Outright ban

John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, believes fervently in the importance of the authorizing committees, those bodies charged with making congressional policy and placing restrictions on weapons program spending.

Today, McCain lost a battle against the appropriators, that small group of powerful legislative leaders who decide how much money the executive branch will get to spend. The senior senator from Arizona has waged a passionate campaign to restrict how many RD-180 rocket engines the United Launch Alliance may use to loft enormous national security satellites into orbit aboard Atlas V rockets.

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McCain is REALLY mad: full text of his blow up.  

Shelby flips a bird back.

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.

United Launch Alliance Cannot bid on US Air Force GPS Sat Launch Contract due to Lakc of Russian RD-180 Rocket Engines

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has decided to skip the bidding competition for launch of the next generation U.S. Air Force GPS military navigation satellites, a company spokesperson confirmed to Universe Today, meaning that rival SpaceX is set to win its first military launch contract as the only other certified contract contender.

Since bids for the new GPS launch contracts – which were the first to be opened by the military to a competitive bidding process – were due on Monday, Nov. 16, the door has opened for SpaceX to apparently prevail with the launch services contract, by default, since they are the only other American company certified to launch U.S. Air Force military satellites.

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Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft Fueled and Preparing for Launch on Atlas V

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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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Boeing: We're not Selling United Launch Alliance

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.

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The Future of ULA's Vulcan Rocket now in Question

Five months ago, United Launch Alliance (ULA) formally announced its plans for a next-generation launch system, called Vulcan (the winning name in an online voting competition.) Most of the focus on Vulcan has been on the replacement of the Russian-built RD-180 engine with an American alternative, most likely Blue Origin’s BE-4.

Vulcan, though, is more than just about ending dependence on a Russian engine. ULA has laid out a long-term strategy for upgrading the Vulcan, including the development of a new upper stage, partial reusability, and other concepts to enable heavier payloads and reduce costs, ideas ULA officials discussed at the recent AIAA Space 2015 conference in Pasadena, California. But a proposal last week by another company to acquire ULA could put those plans in question.

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Lockheed Wants to Sell United Launch Alliance, Boeing Does NOT

A $2 billion bid for the Pentagon’s primary rocket maker is running into complications, partly because Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. differ on whether to sell their equal stakes in the joint venture, according to people familiar with the details.

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.’s bid for United Launch Alliance LLC, the joint venture, faces a situation in which Lockheed Martin’s executive suite seems more eager to negotiate a sale as part of a broader, companywide portfolio restructuring, these people said. On the other hand, Boeing’s leadership is more inclined to hang on to its stake, the people said.

After a report of Aerojet Rocketdyne’s bid in The Wall Street Journal jolted the aerospace industry earlier this week, analysts and space experts tried to assess how the company could finance its bid for the larger firm and then pay for development of a new generation of rockets, dubbed Vulcan, largely designed to blast U.S. military, spy and civilian government satellites into orbit.

But on Thursday, much of the focus shifted to questions about why Boeing and Lockheed—considered rivals in a host of other markets but partners in an effort to win a coming deal for a new Air Force bomber—don’t see eye to eye when it comes to divesting themselves of the rocket-making venture.

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