Orbital ATK [OA] is focusing on early December for its return to the International Space Station (ISS) after NASA contemplated moving the launch to October due to an uncertain cargo situation at ISS.
Three consecutive failed Cargo Resupply Service (CRS) missions led NASA to be concerned if there would be a proper supply of cargo, food and supplies at ISS, located in low earth orbit (LEO). NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said in June following Space Exploration Technology Corp.’s (SpaceX) failure that the civil space agency was trying to move up Orbital ATK’s OA-4 mission to ISS to October.
A successful Russian Progress cargo delivery to ISS in July and a Japanese Kounotori-5 (HTV-5) mission to ISS on Aug. 16 has NASA back to focusing on a December CRS mission for Orbital ATK, company spokesman Barry Beneski said Aug. 12. There are two other Russian Progress missions to ISS scheduled for Sept. 21 and Nov. 21. Orbital ATK’s OA-4 mission was to take place from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on an Atlas V launch vehicle provided by United Launch Alliance (ULA). Orbital ATK announced the week of Aug. 3 that it was procuring a second Atlas V for another future CRS mission.
Orbital ATK is preparing the Cygnus launch vehicle that was set to be used during its OA-4 mission to ISS in December. The extended pressurized cargo module (PCM) that allows Cygnus to deliver larger volumes of cargo than in previous missions arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., earlier the week of Aug. 10. It was to be integrated with Cygnus’ service module, which was to arrive in early October. The service module is currently completing final testing at Orbital ATK’s Dulles, Va., satellite manufacturing facility.
Orbital ATK also said repairs of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad 0A launch facility damaged by the October Antares launch failure are scheduled to be completed by the end of September. Working with MARS, Orbital ATK has installed an upgraded hydraulic system used to erect Antares vertically on the launch pad, which recently completed testing and certification
Other launch pad systems are on track to “comfortably” support the on-pad Antares hot fire test late this year or in early 2016. MARS, located on Wallops Island on the eastern shore of Virginia, is operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA). Orbital ATK said Antares remains on schedule to return to flight in early 2016 from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility. MARS operates a multi-user spaceport at NASA Wallops.
Facilitating Antares’ return to flight was to be the RD-181 engine. New propellant feed lines and first stage avionics systems were to be delivered to Wallops later in August to support full vehicle integration.
Following the completion of certification and acceptance testing of the engine, the first dual-engine ship-set arrived at the Antares integration facility at Wallops in mid-July. A second ship-set is expected to arrive in the fall. Antares program engineers and technicians also recently integrated two RD-181s with a newly-designed and built thrust frame adapter and modified first stage airframe.
NASA did not return a request for comment by press time. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].