United Launch Alliance (ULA) expects to produce two additional launches per year at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., due to relocating some vertical integration procedures to a new facility and, in the process, reducing lead time between launches.
ULA COO Dan Collins said Tuesday the company is implementing Off-site Vertical Integration (OVI) starting with Wednesday’s Mobile User Objective System-4 (MUOS-4) launch for the Navy at the Cape. OVI reduces the number of lifting operations performed at the semi-indoor Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at the Cape, taking them off a critical path, according to a company statement. Relocating these operations to the Delta Operations Center (DOC), an indoor facility, also mitigates risk of weather-related processing delays, ULA said.
The pair of additional launches could help ULA generate an additional $275 million in revenue per year. The Air Force on April 20 awarded ULA a $138 million firm-fixed-price contract for an Atlas V launch in the 541 configuration. This could be a ballpark figure for future Atlas V launches procured by the Air Force in the era of the block buy and upcoming competition. Wednesday’s MUOS-4 launch taking advantage of the OVI process takes place on a 500-series Atlas V configuration.
Collins said ULA shaved seven days off the MUOS-4 launch by moving work normally performed at the VIF down to the Delta facility. He said if ULA launches 10 times per year, presumably at the Cape, it has roughly 36 days between launches. Reducing the time between each launch by seven days allows for approximately two additional launches per year, he said.
ULA said in its statement integration of the Centaur upper stage as well as six structural elements for a 500-series Atlas V rocket was moved from the VIF to the Delta facility. ULA spokeswoman Lyn Chassagne said Tuesday the company will continue to perform lifting operations such as solid rocket booster and payload hoist and mate, along with various tests and integration, in the VIF.
Once fully assembled, the Atlas V will slide down the tracks from the Delta facility to the launch pad, much like it does from the VIF. Collins said the OVI idea was born from ULA employees noticing an old Delta facility originally built by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to process Centaur upper stages and wondering if the building could host vertical integration.
One of the innovations required to enable OVI was the development of a transporter to safely move the five-story stack of rocket hardware approximately six miles from the Delta facility to the VIF. The transporter includes a tank pressure control system for the Centaur upper stage.
ULA said moving these vertical integration tasks to the Delta facility will also provide a safer working environment for employees and mitigates weather impacts to launch schedules. ULA said in the last six years, there were 25 days of weather delays to launch vehicle stacking operations at the VIF. ULA Vice President of Atlas and Delta Programs Jim Sponnick said in a statement the OVI process, including ground support equipment designs and operational procedures, were developed in collaboration with the Air Force.
Wednesday’s MUOS-4 launch is set for 5:59 a.m. EDT at the Cape. MUOS, developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT], is a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system. The 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick AFB, Fla., home of the Cape, predicts 20 percent change of precipitation with 10 percent chance of lightning for Wednesday’s launch. Collins’ remarks came at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space 2015 conference in Pasadena, Calif.
ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing [BA].