By Calvin Biesecker
NASA on Friday destroyed an Alliant Techsystems [ATK] suborbital rocket carrying two experimental payloads moments after liftoff from Wallops Island, Va., after the launch vehicle veered off course and was heading out of the flight safety zone.
The cause of the failure is not known yet. ATK is leading the investigation with support from NASA.
The two-stage launch vehicle, called ALV X-1, is the first built by ATK and is a prototype intended to develop various proprietary systems that could be used in future launch vehicle designs the company is contemplating to meet the United States government’s emerging requirements for low-cost and relatively quick access to space. ATK
ATK doesn’t have any plans to build and launch a similar launch vehicle again, ATK spokeswoman Trina Patterson told Defense Daily on Friday. The rocket was never intended to be an operational launch vehicle, she said.
The company will gather the data it has generated from the prototype development effort all the way through flight termination as part of its effort to develop the various proprietary launch systems ATK is working on, Patterson said.
Friday’s rocket launch at the NASA test range occurred at 5:10 a.m. EDT and the anomaly that caused the failure occurred about 27 seconds into the flight. Once the rocket began to head south from its planned trajectory and outside the safety zone NASA’s flight safety officer decided to abort the mission, a NASA spokesman said.
The ALV X-1 carried two NASA aeronautics experiments. The Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition, or HYBOLT, was intended to gather data on air flow conditions and heating on vehicles flying at hypersonic speeds at least eight times the speed of sound. The other experiment was called Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry Experiments, or SOAREX, was supposed to capture data and send it electronically back to researchers before it fell into the Atlantic Ocean along with the rocket.
The ALV X-1 consisted of first and second stage solid rocket motors, both of which were designed and built by ATK. The company supplies solid rocket propulsion systems for a number of NASA and military rockets, including the Space Shuttle program and Minuteman ICBMs. ATK is developing the solid rocket propelled first stage for NASA’s ARES I next- generation launch vehicle.