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Stories filed under: "antares"
DailyDirt: Getting Back Into Space
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Despite a few mishaps with rockets headed for the International Space Station (eg. SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and the Russian space agency all failed to deliver re-supply cargo ships), there have also been some interesting space-faring developments in the last year or so. Fortunately, none of the lost spacecraft were manned missions, and the ISS also has the Japanese HTV as another backup cargo ship. And with SpaceX’s awesome recovery with a successful launch, it looks like re-supply missions are getting back on track — so the ISS will probably keep going until at least 2020 (and maybe a few years more? 2024? 2028?).
- The International Space Station has been re-supplied using the Cygnus spacecraft from Orbital Sciences — on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. Orbital Sciences is still working out the bugs for its Antares rocket, but it’s looking to restart Antares launches in 2016. [url]
- NASA has a contract with SpaceX for a manned mission to the ISS. With SpaceX getting its re-usable rockets into operation, trips to the International Space Station could get significantly cheaper, but obviously SpaceX has to prove its re-usable rockets are really re-usable (by re-launching one, not just saying it’s possible). [url]
- Another private space company, Intuitive Machines, could provide “next day” shipping to the ISS with its Terrestrial Return Vehicle (TRV). Optimistically, this spacecraft could even provide “same day” delivery to the space station if everything works exactly as planned. This spacecraft is much smaller than other cargo ships that can dock with the space station, but it could be useful for time-sensitive supplies and experiments. [url]
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Filed Under: antares, atlas 5, cygnus, htv, international space station, iss, manned missions, rockets, space, space exploration, trv
Companies: intuitive machines, nasa, orbital sciences, spacex, united launch alliance
DailyDirt: Rocket Engines, Old And New
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Rockets capable of sending payloads into orbit aren’t too common. Not surprisingly, a vehicle that has to control an enormous explosion and direct the thrust in a specified direction isn’t easy to make reliable. So when rocket scientists have created a design that works, it doesn’t make that much sense to radically change the design without good reasons. Here are just a few examples of rocket engines that are gradually evolving and improving as the demands of space launches grow.
- NASA’s younger rocket scientists needed to reverse engineer the F-1 engines that powered the Saturn V rockets and took astronauts to the moon. The lesson helped create the F-1B engine that will produce 1.8 million pounds of thrust — and use more modern manufacturing techniques to build it. [url]
- Blue Origin (another young aerospace company owned by a billionaire: Jeff Bezos, not Elon Musk) will partner with the United Launch Alliance to create the BE-4 engine. The BE-4 engine will replace the use of Russian rocket engines and give NASA another domestic option for launching stuff into space. [url]
- Orbital Sciences Corp is considering a replacement engine for the AJ-26 engines it currently uses — which are based on Soviet-era NK-33 engines developed in the 1960s. ATK could supply a solid rocket engine suitable for the first stage of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket which has successfully sent re-supply payloads to the International Space Station. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: aj-26 engine, antares, be-4 engine, f-1 engine, iss, manned missions, nk-33 engine, rockets, saturn v, space, space exploration
Companies: blue origin, nasa, orbital sciences corp, united launch alliance