Last Sunday, April 21, the new American Antares launch vehicle made its first launch from the MARS launch site in Virginia. The spaceport, located on Wallops Island, is designed to launch small rockets. The rocket launch was originally scheduled for Friday, but was postponed 2 times, although it went smoothly enough. In 18 minutes after the launch of the rocket, a mass-dimensional model of the Signus container truck was delivered to the near-earth orbit. Thus, the intra-American competition, which has been returned by NASA for a long time, is finally appearing on the space cargo delivery market.
The Antares rocket is intended for commercial cargo deliveries to the ISS. The rocket was designed by American specialists, but its engines are Russian, developed by Soviet scientists. Antares is the first private single-use launch vehicle capable of injecting cargo weighing up to 5.5 tons into near-earth orbit. dock to the ISS.
The rocket consists of 2 stages. The first of them is equipped with 2 Russian NK-33 oxygen-kerosene engines. The history of these engines began more than 40 years ago and dates back to the Soviet lunar program. For the implementation of this project in the USSR, light, but sufficiently reliable engines were developed that would be able to lift into space the super-heavy N-1 rocket, which was created to deliver Soviet cosmonauts to the moon. As a result, under the leadership of the brilliant Soviet designer Nikolai Kuznetsov, a unique engine was developed, but the N-1 rocket project was closed, and for other missiles of that period, the NK-33 engines were too powerful, as a result, dozens of ready-made engines instead of the Moon went to the warehouse.
Launch of the Antares rocket
At the same time, the characteristics of the NK-33 engine turned out to be so good that they could not be surpassed until now. According to Alexander Ivano, head of the rocket engine department of OJSC Kuznetsov, NK-33 is a very economical closed circuit engine. At the same time, Soviet engineers from Samara managed to give it another very good property - it is very light. At present, the NK-33 is the lightest engine in its class with a thrust of 150-200 tons. It is very beneficial for rocket designers to use precisely these engines, since they provide an increase in the payload launched into space. At the same time, in terms of efficiency, the engine still corresponds to the current level of development of space technology.
The second stage of the Antares launch vehicle is already of a purely American origin - it is produced by ATK based on Castor solid-propellant engines, which are a modification of the MX (Peacekeeper) military missiles. The assembly of the missiles and control of the entire system is carried out by Orbital Sciences, which is also involved in the creation of the cargo ship Singus. The total height of the new rocket reaches 40 meters, and the mass of "Antares" at the start almost reaches 300 tons.
The Signus cargo ship under development consists of a control module and a sealed container for cargo, the ship is equipped with solar panels. The device got its name in honor of the Cygnus constellation and differs from its direct competitor - the Dragon transport ship - in that it cannot return cargo from the ISS to Earth. In this regard, its design is noticeably simpler, "Signus" is a one-way device that will deliver goods one way, as Russian, Japanese and European transporters do today.
Freight ship "Signus"
The Signus space cargo ship is planned to be produced in two versions - extended and conventional. Moreover, in both it will be smaller than the already created Dragon truck. The Dragon cargo ship allows you to deliver on board the International Space Station up to 3 tons of cargo in an airtight container and the same amount in an unpressurized container, while the mass of the entire Signus cargo will not exceed 2 tons (in the extended version, 2.7 tons) … At the same time, the cargo ship developed by Orbital Sciences has a twice as large sealed volume, which gives the apparatus some albeit specific advantage.
In the first flight of the new rocket, the role of Signus was played by an aluminum model weighing 3, 8 tons, which was equipped with numerous sensors and instruments that collect information about flight parameters, including 12 digital thermometers, 22 accelerometers and 2 microphones. The mockup, which does not have its own solar panels and engines, was launched into orbit with an apogee of 303 km. and a perigee of 250 km., an inclination of 51.6 degrees.
Together with the model, the rocket launched 4 satellites of the CubeSat standard into orbit. 3 of them were created at NASA and were named "Alexander", "Bell" and "Graham" - in honor of the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. On these satellites, smartphones running Android OS play the role of an on-board computer. The fourth satellite, Dove 1, was developed by Cosmogia and will survey the earth's surface.
Back in 2008, Orbital Sciences, as well as SpaceX, received contracts from NASA for the delivery of cargo to the ISS, while Orbital Sciences had 8 flights. Its competitor, SpaceX, launched its 2nd scheduled cargo flight to the ISS on March 1, 2013. If everything goes according to the plans of Orbital Sciences, then the next Antares will be sent into orbit in June-July 2013. On the next flight, he will take with him not a model, but the cargo ship itself. According to the manufacturer's company, the cargo, the mass and composition of which is still unknown, has already been loaded into the Signus cargo ship and is ready for flight.
After the 2nd test launch of the Antares launch vehicle, it will have to perform 8 more "official" flights to the ISS with a payload on board. The launches are planned to be carried out approximately 2 times a year, therefore, most likely, they will last until 2017-2018. On the other hand, nothing can prevent NASA from extending this contract if the space delivery service is recognized as successful.
In any case, a number of experts believe Orbital Sciences was a little late in launching the Antares rocket. Its competitor SpaceX began launching the Dragon cargo ship almost a year earlier and has already completed 2 successful flights to the international space station. In addition, SpaceX is working on the creation of a module for manned flights. At the same time, Orbital Sciences does not seem to be experiencing much concern about the success of a competitor. Earlier, NASA representatives have stated many times that they really do not like the monopoly in the space industry, so they are ready to purposefully support competition among companies focused on the production of space technology. In this regard, the Orbital Sciences project has hope for a happy future.
