Upgraded Antares Rocket To Fly to ISS in March 2016

OrbitalATK President and CEO David Thompson said today that the company plans the first flight of its upgraded Antares rocket on March 1, 2016 from Wallops Flight Facility, VA.  An Antares exploded at liftoff in October 2014 destroying a Cygnus capsule loaded with supplies for the International Space Station (ISS).  The upgraded Antares will use a different rocket engine.

Thompson and two other top officials of the new company held an investors teleconference this morning.   The merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) closed on February 9.   Thompson and CFO Garrett Pierce are from the Orbital side of the merger; COO Blake Larson is from ATK.

Data presented by the trio this morning show that 56 percent of the company’s revenue is from national security programs, 26 percent from commercial programs, and 18 percent from NASA and other civil government programs.  NASA programs were numbers two and three of the five top revenue producers last year:  NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract to take cargo to the ISS (approximately $300 million) and the propulsion system for the Space Launch System (about $250 million).  In first place was small caliber ammunition for the Army ($430 million).  Fourth was medium and large caliber ammunition for the Army ($225 million) and fifth place was a tie between missile defense interceptors and tactical missiles, both at $150 million.

Public attention is focused on the merged company’s recovery from the Antares failure.  Thompson was confident that OrbitalATK will be able to fulfill its contract with NASA to deliver 20 tons of cargo to the ISS by the end of 2016.  Between now and the first launch of the upgraded Antares, OrbitalATK will launch one of its Cygnus spacecraft on a competitor’s rocket — United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5.  Thompson said that launch will be ready for flight in early October, but NASA may want to wait until later that month or November, depending on other ISS activities.   That will be followed by the March 1 launch of the upgraded Antares and two more later in the year.  The Cygnus itself is an upgraded model as well that can carry more cargo than the earlier version, allowing OrbitalATK to meet the tonnage requirements with only four more launches instead of five.

Thompson said that NASA is not asking the company to fly a demonstration launch of the upgraded rocket — the March 1 launch will have a full cargo load.  However, in January the company will conduct a test firing of the first stage on the launch pad at Wallops.

The first stage is built in Ukraine by Yuzhmash and Thompson was asked if he had any concerns considering the situation there.  Thompson replied that he needs five more Antares first stages over the next two-and-a-half years and three are complete and the other two are “almost” complete.  “We’re watching closely with nearly full time presence” at Yuzhmash and “we do have a fallback plan if things really deteriorate there.”   No details were provided during the teleconference and the company has not yet responded to a query from SpacePolicyOnline.com about what that plan is.

The engines used for the original version of Antares were old Russian NK-33 engines manufactured more than four decades ago and refurbished here by Aerojet Rocketdyne and redesignated AJ26.   Thompson said shortly after the October 28 launch failure that early indications were that the engines were the cause of the failure 15 seconds after launch. 

The replacement engines also are Russian, but newer RD-181s built by NPO Energomash, a subsidiary of Energia.  In a January 16, 2015 press release, Energia’s President Vladimir Solntsev said the two companies had been working on the contract for three years.  According to that press release, the contract value is $1 billion for 60 engines (plus engineering services), but apparently that is a firm contract for 20 engines plus two options for 20 more engines each.  The first two engines are due to be delivered in June 2015.   The RD-181 was “developed specifically” for Antares, according to the Energia press release, based on the RD-191 engine built for Russia’s new Angara rocket family.  Orbital/OrbitalATK itself has released very little information about the contract.