**NASA memos on COTS latest, plus the impressive \u2013 yet unreleased \u2013 K-1 COTS Operations Video \u2013 are available to download on L2<\/em><\/font> **<\/em><\/font><\/em><\/p>\n **COMMERCIAL\/COTS LIVE SECTION**<\/font><\/em><\/font><\/em><\/p>\n Article:<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n <\/font><\/p>\n <\/font><\/p>\n <\/font><\/u> <\/p>\n In addition, an upgraded vehicle would provide an additional 1,560 lbs of payload capability for International Space Station (ISS) missions, by incorporating composite case and solid propellant upgrades \u2013 which ATK believe could prove to be a useful test bed for potential Ares I and Ares V upgrades.<\/p>\n \u2018An attractive feature of the vehicle stems from our pre-planned composite case and propellent upgrades to the RSRM derivative,\u2019 said Joel Crook Program Director, Advanced Programs at ATK. \u2018For the two-and-a-half segment version we\u2019re planning they would provide an additional payload capacity of 1,500 pounds for an ISS mission.<\/p>\n \u2018In addition, those launches could serve as a flying test bed for potential Ares I and Ares V booster upgrades. ATK has experience with composite cases with several of our current commercial propulsion products.\u2019<\/p>\n ATK note the vehicle is capable of the following payload capability: International Space Station (ISS) \u2013 13,233 lbs\/14,795 lb. Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) \u2013 6,160 lbs. Trans-Lunar Insertion (TLI) \u2013 4,147 lbs. Mars Science Mission \u2013 2,992 lbs.<\/p>\n ATK hope to create 350 jobs in the region \u2013 which will be heavily hit by the retirement of the shuttle at the end of the decade.<\/p>\n ATK, currently in partnership with the Chicago-based PlanetSpace, announced their position for the bidding of the $175m COTS contract last year, and now find themselves as one of eight finalists \u2013 that will officially become four after \u2018oral\u2019 meetings in Houston at the end of the month \u2013 after the competition was re-issued due to issues with a previous finalist, RpK.<\/p>\n COTS is required for ISS access once the shuttle retires in around 2010. The US will be without domestic access via NASA systems for five years, as per current timelines with the development of Ares I and Orion.<\/p>\n Looking to the future, ATK believe they can utilize their new vehicle in a multi-option marketplace, post Delta II retirement. However, they will face stern competition from Orbital\u2019s soon-to-be-announced Taurus II \u2013 which is believed to have the bulk of NASA and industry support.<\/p>\n Regardless, ATK remain buoyant they can achieve viability in a tight marketplace via derivatives of their \u2018Athena III\u2019 \u2013 claiming they already have three letters of intent from customers.<\/p>\n \u2018A big advantage of the design is that it\u2019s modular in nature,\u2019 added Crook. \u2018We can fly the entire vehicle for a COTS-class mission, or we can fly a smaller payload by flying all but the RSRM (Reusable Solid Rocket Motor) first stage.<\/p>\n \u2018In fact, we already have three letters of intent from different customers for the small launch vehicle. We plan to fly the first small launch vehicle in September 2009, and launch our COTS demonstration vehicle in December 2010.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ATK have officially unveiled their new vehicle, which is targeted at a near-term solution for their COTS partner PlanetSpace, as well as satellite and planetary markets. Unnamed, but known in the industry as Athena III, the three stage vehicle is based on a 2.5 segment Solid Rocket Booster, with an ATK Castor 120 second stage, […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-41499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41499"}],"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=41499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em><\/font><\/em><\/p>\nThe performance capability for the initial vehicle is nearly 25 percent greater than the heavy version of the Delta II, for GTO missions, and almost 40 percent better for TLI missions. <\/p>\n
However, the immediate concentration is on bringing the new launch vehicle on line for their COTS partnership with PlanetSpace and Lockheed Martin, with an aim to achieve its first flight by late 2010 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. <\/p>\n