{"id":16896,"date":"2014-10-27T17:37:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T09:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/antares-rockets-enhanced-upper-stage-debuts-tuesday\/"},"modified":"2014-10-27T17:37:22","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T09:37:22","slug":"antares-rockets-enhanced-upper-stage-debuts-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/antares-rockets-enhanced-upper-stage-debuts-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Antares rocket\u2019s enhanced upper stage debuts Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated after the scrub of Monday\u2019s launch attempt.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Antares rocket on launch pad 0A at Wallops Island, Va. Credit: Orbital Sciences Corp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An upgraded Castor 30XL upper stage motor will provide the Antares rocket with an extra boost during launch Tuesday with supplies and experiments for the International Space Station, a critical upgrade Orbital Sciences says will ensure it meets contractual cargo delivery requirements.<\/p>\n

Packed with additional propellant and fitted with a modified exhaust nozzle, the upper stage will give the Antares rocket power to lift about 800 more kilograms \u2014 about 1,760 pounds \u2014 more mass into the space station\u2019s orbit, officials said.<\/p>\n

Less powerful Castor 30 motors built by ATK have flown on the Antares rocket\u2019s previous four missions. The Castor 30XL upper stage on Tuesday\u2019s launch of the Orb-3 resupply flight is longer than the earlier motors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Castor 30XL is an extended-length version of the Castor family of motors that we\u2019ve flown on all of the first four missions,\u201d said Mike Pinkston, the Antares rocket\u2019s program manager at Orbital Sciences Corp. \u201cIn specific terms, it\u2019s about double the total impulse compared to the original Castor 30B on Orb-1 and Orb-2 \u2014 a little higher thrust and burns about 30 seconds longer than the Castor 30B \u2014 so overall it has a much higher performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orbital Sciences\u2019 $1.9 billion cargo resupply contract with NASA requires delivery of 20 metric tons, or about 44,000 pounds, of supplies to the space station over eight missions with the Antares rocket and Cygnus supply ship.<\/p>\n

Frank Culbertson, executive vice president of Orbital\u2019s advanced programs group, said Sunday that the Orb-3 mission \u2014 the third of the eight-mission slate \u2014 will take up about 5,000 pounds.<\/p>\n

Including a demonstration flight last year, Orbital will have delivered more than 13,000 pounds of cargo to the space station with a successful Orb-3 mission, Culbertson said.<\/p>\n

The Cygnus spacecraft has removed about 10,000 pounds of trash and disposal cargo from the space station so far. That number will increase to about 15,000 pounds after Orb-3\u2019s departure in December.<\/p>\n

Orbital plans to introduce an enlarged Cygnus cargo module on the next mission set for launch in April to provide more volume for supplies.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Castor 30XL motor seen inside the Antares rocket\u2019s horizontal integration facility. Credit: ATK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen we won the contract, we already had plans for an performance enhancement program partway through the program to make sure we could in fact carry our contracted amount of 20 metric tons to ISS,\u201d Culbertson said. \u201cWe started with lower delivery numbers to begin with, and then have gradually increased it as we work off our contingencies and our margins. But we needed this part of it \u2014 the enhanced cargo-carrying module, which is a meter longer, and the increased performance of the upper stage \u2014 to really meet our goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Antares rocket launching Tuesday \u2014 known as the 130 version \u2014 is about 8 feet taller than the launcher\u2019s earlier configuration. Engineers added a spacer ring below the 12.8-foot-diameter nose cone \u2014 which is unchanged on this flight \u2014 to make more room for the larger Castor 30XL motor and the longer Cygnus cargo module on the next mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a great enhancement to our cargo service, and we need it,\u201d Pinkston said.<\/p>\n

ATK finished development of the Castor 30XL in 2013, according to Jason Meredith, director of business development for ATK Aerospace Group\u2019s defense and commercial division.<\/p>\n

The upper stage is about 8 feet longer than the motors flown on the Antares rocket\u2019s first four flights.<\/p>\n

It weighs about 58,000 pounds with a load of pre-packed solid propellant and is about twice the size of the older Castor 30 motor, Meredith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s mainly the the way it provdes the additional capability to the Antares \u2014 with the much larger mass of propellant,\u201d Meredith said Monday. \u201cIt also has some design changes to the nozzle to provide more ISP, or impulse, to the system. Those are the main changes between the Castor 30XL and the other two versions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more thrust and it burns a little bit longer, but to a large extent, it\u2019s just more impulse \u2014 more total energy that it is able to impart to the launch vehicle and provide the additional performance,\u201d Meredith said.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated after the scrub of Monday\u2019s launch attempt. The Antares rocket on launch pad 0A at Wallops Island, Va. Credit: Orbital Sciences Corp. An upgraded Castor 30XL upper stage motor will provide the Antares rocket with an extra boost during launch Tuesday with supplies and experiments for the International Space Station, a critical upgrade Orbital […]<\/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":[1871,4144,3900,2260],"class_list":["post-16896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-antares","tag-atk","tag-orb-3","tag-orbital-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896"}],"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=16896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}