{"id":15150,"date":"2016-10-17T19:08:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T11:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/key-events-during-the-antares-rockets-climb-to-orbit\/"},"modified":"2016-10-17T19:08:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T11:08:36","slug":"key-events-during-the-antares-rockets-climb-to-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/key-events-during-the-antares-rockets-climb-to-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Key events during the Antares rocket\u2019s climb to orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_19171\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19171\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-19171\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/oa5timeline.jpg\" alt=\"Credit: Orbital ATK\" width=\"675\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/oa5timeline.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/oa5timeline-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/oa5timeline-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/oa5timeline-1024x681.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19171\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Orbital ATK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Orbital ATK\u2019s Antares rocket will deliver the commercial Cygnus supply ship to an orbit with an altitude between 130 miles (209 kilometers) and 179 miles (288 kilometers) within about nine minutes of liftoff from Virginia\u2019s Eastern Shore.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket\u2019s two RD-181 engines will ignite around 3.6 seconds before liftoff from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a complex owned by the state of Virginia at NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight Facility.<\/p>\n<p>The first stage\u2019s two RD-181 engines will power up to 864,000 pounds of thrust and burn for 3 minutes, 29 seconds to accelerate the rocket to more than 8,250 mph (3.7 kilometers per second) and an altitude of, then separate from the upper stage\u2019s Castor 30XL motor about six seconds later.<\/p>\n<p>In the video below, Antares program manager Mike Pinkston from Orbital ATK describes what the liftoff will look like.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: static; visibility: visible; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=788117476651503617&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2016%2F10%2F17%2Fkey-events-during-the-antares-rockets-climb-to-orbit%2F&amp;sessionId=10565a2fe906e047801b5f18739688bb8f344557&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"788117476651503617\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-video\" data-lang=\"en\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782702369990156077=\"true\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">PREVIEW: What the expect during tonight\u2019s Antares rocket liftoff. pic.twitter.com\/lr5Rd9zHwb<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) October 17, 2016<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Antares rocket\u2019s old AJ26 engines produced less thrust, equivalent to around 730,000 force-pounds, and burned around 25 seconds longer. Engineers replaced the AJ26 engines with newly-built RD-181s after a launch failure in 2014 that was blamed on the decades-old powerplants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thrust-to-weight (ratio) is a little bit higher (with the RD-181 engines), so it may come off the pad a little faster,\u201d Pinkston said. \u201cThis thing comes off so slow I\u2019m not sure that a little faster is going to be noticeable. Beyond that, I dont think you\u2019ll tell the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The RD-181s burn the same kerosene and liquid oxygen propellant mix as the Antares\u2019 previous AJ26 engines. The new Antares configuration is known as the Antares 230.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause of the higher-performing engines, where you\u2019ll really notice it is at the end of the mission,\u201d Pinkston said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have Cygnus in orbit about a minute earlier than we would have on the previous version of Antares.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat means we won\u2019t have to hold our breath as long,\u201d joked Frank Culbertson, a former astronaut who leads Orbital ATK\u2019s space systems group.<\/p>\n<p>The Antares rocket\u2019s 12.8-foot-diameter (3.9-meter) diameter nose cone will jettison at T+plus 4 minutes, 10 seconds, then the interstage skirt that connected the first and second stages will separate at T+plus 4 minutes, 15 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>The solid-fueled Castor 30XL motor will ignite at T+4 minutes, 22 seconds, and generate up to 104,300 pounds of thrust during a burn lasting 2 minutes, 43 seconds. The second stage motor will burn out at T+plus 7 minutes, 5 seconds, then deploy the Cygnus spacecraft at T+plus 9 minutes, 5 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>The supply ship\u2019s two solar arrays will unfurl around 90 minutes after launch.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Orbital ATK Orbital ATK\u2019s Antares rocket will deliver the commercial Cygnus supply ship to an orbit with an altitude between 130 miles (209 kilometers) and 179 miles (288 kilometers) within about nine minutes of liftoff from Virginia\u2019s Eastern Shore. The rocket\u2019s two RD-181 engines will ignite around 3.6 seconds before liftoff from pad 0A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3558,1871,639,717,1602,2856,1698,3522],"class_list":["post-15150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aj26","tag-antares","tag-cygnus","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss-cargo","tag-launch-pad-0a","tag-mid-atlantic-regional-spaceport","tag-oa-5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}