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A top secret cargo for the U.S. government spy satellite agency flew into orbit from Cape Canaveral on the tip of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on Friday night, successfully debuting a new solid fuel booster project that according to ULA is cheaper and easier to handle than previous strap-on motors.
The new booster design, manufactured by Northrop Grumman and named GEM 63, replaces Aerojet Rocketdyne’s AJ-60A solid rocket boosters that powered previous Atlas 5 missions.
The three GEM 63 repeaters and a Russian-made RD-180 engine powered by kerosene produced nearly 1.8 million pounds of thrust to propel the 206-foot (63-meter) tall Atlas 5 off the launch pad in Cape Canaveral at 5 a.m. : 32 pm EST (2232 GMT) Friday.
A little over three hours later, the ULA and the National Reconnaissance Office – which owns the payload launched atop the Atlas 5 rocket – released press statements declaring the mission’s success.
The Atlas 5 mission has been delayed several times since an original launch attempt scheduled for November 3.
ULA brought the Atlas 5 rocket back to its hangar to replace an environmental control system duct that fed air conditioning to the payload on top of the launcher, preparing a November 4 countdown that was later cleaned up due to an issue with valves in the ground liquid oxygen system on launch pad 41.
Once the teams had solved the valve problem, ULA decided to return the rocket to its vertical hangar to protect itself from the bad weather of tropical storm Eta. The Atlas 5 was launched again on pad 41 on Thursday afternoon in preparation for the launch opportunity on Friday.
A couple of minor technical issues delayed the launch by 19 minutes in the window on Friday night, but ULA fixed the issues and the launch team expressed approval to proceed with the terminal’s countdown as the sun set on Space. Coast of Florida.
The main engine of the Atlas 5’s RD-180 roared at T-minus 2.7 seconds, followed moments later by the firing of the three GEM 63 strap boosters. After leaping into the low clouds, the launcher it moved northeast and rose in the light of the setting sun that illuminated the rocket’s plume of smoke orange.
The three solid-propellant boosters burned out and were launched from the rocket for nearly two minutes during the flight, with the exhausted engine casings clearly visible as they rolled in the wake of the Atlas 5. The rocket’s Swiss-made payload fairing is dropped after the three-minute mission, revealing the NRO’s classified payload after the Atlas 5 reached the upper atmosphere.
At that point, the mission entered a government-ordered news blackout, citing the sensitive nature of the national security payload. The live broadcast of ULA ended and the rest of the mission took place in secret. The Centaur upper stage of the Atlas 5 was expected to take over for multiple firings of its Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine before deploying the NRO payload into orbit.
The NRO issued a press release at 20:44 EDT (0144 GMT) to confirm the successful conclusion of the launch, known as NROL-101.
“The successful launch of NROL-101 is another example of the NRO’s commitment to constantly evolve our crucial homeland security systems to support our defense and intelligence partners,” said the US Space Force Colonel. Chad Davis, director of the NRO’s Office of Space Launch.
“2020 has been a particularly busy year for launch and the space community given the COVID-19 pandemic,” Davis said in a statement. “I am continually impressed by our partners and members of our NRO team on their ability to find new and innovative ways to collaborate in this environment and ensure that we are meeting our mission requirements, prioritizing the safety, security and health of everything. our launch team. “
The NRO did not disclose any information about the in-flight payload on the NROL-101 mission, but warning notices issued to pilots and sailors prior to launch suggested that the Atlas 5 rocket would head on a northeastern route from Cape Canaveral. following a parallel route to the eastern US Coast before flying close to the Canadian maritime provinces.
The trajectory indicated that the Atlas 5 would release the NRO payload in a high tilt orbit.
The NRO has data transmission satellites and several spacecraft designed to intercept communication signals in Molniya-type elliptical orbits that extend nearly 40,000 kilometers above Earth at the highest points. These orbits are tilted approximately 63 degrees to the equator, giving the satellites regular views of Russia and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
The launch of Atlas 5 on Friday evening likely aimed at a similar Molniya-type orbit, according to several independent experts who monitor the activity of spy satellites.
Ted Molczan, a leader in the global community of hobbyists who expertly monitor the movements of satellites, wrote in the SeeSat-L online forum that he believes the payload of the NROL-101 mission is likely a new spacecraft for the Satellite Data System fleet of NRO in orbit communication stations.
The SDS, or Quasar, satellites transmit images of the NRO’s sharp-eyed optical and radar surveillance satellites to analysts, allowing users to receive images faster than if they had to wait for spy satellites to fly over a ground station.
SDS satellites fly in Molniya’s orbit and geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above the equator. The last two SDS satellites launched into a Molniya orbit took off in 2004 and 2007, which means it is time for a replacement to join the fleet, according to Molczan.
The NRO launched new signals intelligence satellites into Molniya’s orbits in 2014 and 2017. “This year seems too early for a replacement or a new generation,” Molczan wrote.
Signal intelligence satellites were most often launched into Molniya orbits from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, while SDS satellites were launched from Cape Canaveral, according to Molczan.
“The data collected by the NRO’s national security systems is used to provide information to senior policy makers, the intelligence community and the Department of Defense, as well as allied partners of the United States,” the NRO said in a statement. . “In addition, the information gathered by NRO systems can be used to assist disaster relief and emergency efforts in the United States and around the world.”
The NROL-101 mission was the 30th ULA launch for the National Reconnaissance Office.
“Thanks to our mission partners, the NRO and the United States Space Force for their continued trust and collaboration with ULA,” said Gary Wentz, vice president of government and commercial programs at the ULA. “This launch was the inaugural launch of our new GEM 63 solid rocket engines, a critical step for ULA to build flight experience in preparation for the Vulcan Centaur, our next generation launch vehicle.”
The new GEM 63 engines that debuted Friday night on the Atlas 5 launch measured 20 meters long and 1.6 meters wide. GEM 63 engines can produce 373,800 pounds of thrust at maximum power.
They are designed to ignite on the launch pad and burn for 94 seconds, consuming 97,500 pounds (44.2 metric tons) of prepackaged solid propellant before launching overboard to fall overboard.
The design of the GEM 63 booster is an evolution of the 60-inch GEM 60 engine built by Northrop Grumman for ULA’s Delta 4 rocket family. There are no more Delta 4s left to fly that require the GEM 60 solid rocket booster.
Northrop Grumman, through its predecessors ATK and Orbital ATK, also supplied smaller strap-on boosters for the now retired Delta 2 and Delta 3 rocket families.
Boosters give an extra boost to rockets carrying heavier payloads into orbit or missions that have to place satellites in high altitude orbits. The Atlas 5 rocket can be launched with any number of zero to five solid propellant boosters, depending on the requirements of each mission.
Like the AJ-60A engine that flew on previous Atlas 5s, the GEM 63 engine has fixed nozzles and a curved cone, or nose cone, which provides the proper aerodynamic shape to ensure the booster moves away from the Atlas 5 after burnout. Northrop Grumman’s GEM 63 booster produces more or less the same thrust and is approximately the same size as the AJ-60A, allowing ULA to introduce the new booster model as a “direct replacement” for the older Aerojet Rocketdyne version.
Aerojet Rocketdyne’s AJ-60A engine has an impeccable record since its first use on the third launch of the Atlas 5 in July 2003, with 127 of the boosters flown to date.
ULA announced in 2015 the selection of Orbital ATK – now part of Northrop Grumman – to provide solid rocket thrusters for future Atlas 5 launches and the next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket. At the time, ULA said that selecting the GEM 63 rocket engine would “significantly lower the price for ULA and the US government.”
Northrop Grumman boosters, made with the help of advanced robotics and automation, are also designed to be easier to connect to the launch vehicle at the vertical integration facility, the company says.
An elongated version of the GEM 63 known as the GEM 63XL will fly on ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, which is scheduled for inaugural launch in the second half of 2021. The Atlas 5 rocket can fly with any number of solid rocket boosters from zero to five, while the Vulcan Centaur can launch into configurations with two, four or six boosters along with the rocket’s two BE-4 Blue Origin main engines.
Northrop Grumman performed three test launches of GEM 63 repeaters at a test site in Promontory, Utah, before engineers cleared the solid rocket engine for flight.
Aerojet Rocketdyne’s AJ-60A engines are not finished yet.
Julie Arnold, a spokesperson for the ULA, said earlier this year that the company will pilot Aerojet Rocketdyne boosters in future Atlas 5 missions until the rocket is fully transferred to Northrop Grumman engines. The AJ-60As will continue to be launched on missions with Boeing’s Starliner commercial crew capsule and ULA is working with NASA on the future use of the GEM 63s on astronaut launches.
Arnold said ULA expects all Atlas 5 launches after 2021 to use the new GEM 63s.
ULA’s next mission will be to launch another NRO-rated spy satellite on a Delta 4-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral. That mission, designated NROL-44, was supposed to take off in August, but a series of launch pad problems kept the Delta 4-Heavy on the ground.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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