[ad_1]
The United Launch Alliance successfully unveiled the ULA’s new solid fuel booster project from Cape Canaveral to the top of the Atlas 5 rocket, a top secret cargo for the US government’s spy satellite agency Friday evening. Earlier strap-on motors.
The new booster design, manufactured by Northrobe Krumman and named GEM63, replaces the AJ-60A solid rocket boosters of the previous passenger-powered Atlas 5 aerojet rocket.
The Russian-made RD-180 engine, equipped with three GEM 63 boosters and kerosene fuel, produced the 206-foot (63m) Atlas 5 at க 1.8 million pushed for launch from Cape Canaveral at 5pm: 32 pm EST (2232 GMT) Friday.
Three hours later, the ULA and the National Reassessment Office, which had launched the payload from the Atlas 5 rocket, released news announcing the mission’s success.
The Atlas 5 mission has been delayed several times since the original launch attempt scheduled for November 3.
The ULA Atlas 5 rocket was returned to its hangar, the environmental control system to replace the tube, inserted into the payload above the air launch, set to a countdown on November 4th, and then blown away due to a problem with the ground valves on the launch pad system 41.
Once the teams sorted out the valve problem, the ULA decided to return the rocket to its vertical hook to protect it from the bad weather of tropical storm Etta. The Atlas 5 returned to Bat 41 on Thursday afternoon to prepare for Friday’s release opportunity.
Two minor technical issues delayed the launch of the window by 19 minutes on Friday night, but the ULA fixed the issues and the launch team agreed to proceed with the terminal’s countdown as soon as the sun went down on Space Beach. Florida.
The Atlas 5’s RD-180 main engine dissolved in less than 2.7 seconds, minutes after firing some GEM 63 boosters. After passing through low clouds, the missile made its way north-east and ascended to the light of the sunset, illuminating the rocket’s smoke hole orange.
Three solid fuel boosters were burned by the rocket for about two minutes on the plane, clearly visible when the spent engine casings fell on the height of Atlas 5. After Atlas 5 reached the upper atmosphere , the Swiss-made payload fairing of the rocket was dropped after a three-minute journey, revealing the NRO’s assorted payload.
At the time, the assignment entered a government-ordered press blackout, highlighting the key nature of national security pay. The live broadcast of the ULA was over and the rest of the work was done in secret. The centerpiece of the Atlas 5 was to have taken its RL10 aeroget rocket engine for several tests before using the NRO payload in orbit.
The NRO released the EDT press release (0144 GMT) at 20:44 to confirm the successful completion of the launch site known as NROL-101.
“The successful launch of NROL-101 is another example of the NRO’s commitment to continue developing our vital homeland security systems to support our defense and intelligence partners,” said Col. Chad Davis, Director of the NRO Space Launch Office.
“2020 will be a busy year for the COVID-19 outbreak in the rocket and space community,” Davis said in a statement. “I am constantly impressed by the ability of our partners and members of our NRO team to find new and innovative ways to collaborate in this environment and to ensure that we meet our mission needs by prioritizing the safety, security and health of the entire team. startup “.
The NRO did not release any information about the payload’s flight on the NROL-101 mission, but warning notices issued to the plane and navy indicated that the Atlas 5 rocket was heading north-east from Cape Canaveral, the coast before flying close to Canadian waters following a course parallel to the eastern United States.
The trajectory indicated that the Atlas 5 would release the NRO payload into a high-slope orbit.
The NRO owns data transmission satellites and a number of spacecraft, designed to intercept communication signals in the Molniya-type elliptical orbit at altitudes of approximately 25,000 miles (40,000 km) above Earth. Those orbits tilt 63 degrees relative to the equator, giving the satellites regular views of Russia and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
According to several independent experts monitoring the operation of the spy satellite, the launch of Atlas 5 was headed Friday evening on a similar Molniya-type orbit.
Ted Molkson, leader of the global entertainment community that effectively monitors satellite movements, wrote the Seasat-L forum online. He believes the pay for the NRO-101 mission could be a new spacecraft for the Navy with NRO’s Satellite Data System.
SDS, or Quasar, satellites provide relay images to analysts from NRO’s radar and optical surveillance satellites, allowing users to capture images faster than spy satellites waiting to fly over a ground station.
SDS satellites fly 22,000 miles (about 36,000 km) above the equator in Molniya’s orbit and geostationary orbit. The last two SDS satellites launched into Molniya’s orbit were launched in 2004 and 2007, meaning it’s time to join an alternate navy, Molkson says.
The NRO launched new satellites for signal intelligence into Molniya’s orbit in 2014 and 2017. “It looks like an alternative or a new generation very soon this year,” Molkson wrote.
The signals are often sent from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to Molniya Orbit, as SDS satellites are launched from Cape Canaveral, Molkson said.
“The information gathered by the NRO’s national security agencies is used to provide information to high-level policy makers, the intelligence community and the US Department of Defense and affiliates,” the NRO said in a statement. “In addition, data collected by NRO organizations will be used to assist disaster relief and emergency efforts in the United States and around the world.”
The NROL-101 mission is the 30th ULA launch for the National Revaluation Office.
“Thanks to our mission partners, the NRO and the United States Air Force for our continued trust and partnership with the ULA,” said Gary Vents, Vice President of ULA Government and Business Programs. “This launch is the launch pad for our new GEM63 solid rocket engines, a tool from ULA to build aviation expertise in preparation for our next generation launch vehicle, the Vulcan Center.”
The new GEM63 engines, which were unveiled on Friday night at the Atlas 5 launch pad, are 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, using a solid 97,500 pounds (44.2 metric tons) pre-charged pulse before falling overboard.
The design of the GEM63 booster is an evolution of the 60-inch GEM60 engine built by Northrop Krumman for ULA’s Delta 4 rocket family. Delta 4s requiring a GEM 60 solid rocket booster are not yet available for flight.
Northrop Grooman, through its predecessors ADK and Orbital ADK, supplied small strap-on boosters to the retired Delta 2 and Delta 3 rocket families.
Boosters give additional impetus to rockets carrying heavy loads into orbit or tasks that require positioning satellites in high altitude orbit. The Atlas 5 rocket can carry zero to five solid fuel boosters depending on the needs of each mission.
Like the AJ-60A engine that flew on previous Atlas 5s, the GEM63 engine has fixed nozzles and a curved cone, or spinner, which provides the perfect aerodynamic shape to ensure it falls cleanly out of the Atlas 5 after the booster burns out. . . Northrobe Krumman’s GEM63 booster produces nearly the same thrust and is the same size as the AJ-60A, allowing ULA to introduce a new booster model as a “direct alternative” to the older version of the Aerojet rocket.
Aerojet Rocket’s AJ-60A engine has achieved an impeccable record since its first use on the Atlas 5’s third launch pad in July 2003, with 127 flying boosters to date.
In order to provide solid rockets for future Atlas 5 launches and the next-generation Vulcan Center rocket, Orbital ADK, now part of Northrop Krumman at the time, the ULA said the choice of the GEM63 rocket engine would “reduce significantly the costs for the ULA and the US government ”.
Developed with the help of advanced robotics and automation, Northrop Krumman boosters are designed to be easily integrated with a vehicle launched into a vertical integration facility, the company said.
The longer version of the GEM 63, known as the GEM 63XL, will fly on ULA’s new Vulcan Center rocket, scheduled for launch in the second half of 2021. The Atlas 5 rocket can fly any zero to five solid rocket booster, with the Vulcan Centaur starting with the rocket’s two Blue Origin PE-4 main engines in configurations with two, four or six boosters.
At a test site in Promontory, Utah, Northrop Grooman ran three test runs of the GEM 63 boosters before engineers removed the solid-fuel rocket engine for the plane.
The AJ-60A engines from the aerojet rocket have not yet been made.
ULA spokeswoman Julie Arnold said earlier this year that the company will fly the Aerojet rocket boosters on future Atlas 5 passengers, until the rocket is fully converted to Northrop Kroman engines. The AJ-60As will continue to travel with Boeing’s Starliner corporate team capsule, and ULA is working with NASA on future use of the GEM63 in astronaut launches.
Arnold said the ULA plans to use the new GEM63 for all Atlas 5 launches after 2021.
ULA’s next goal is to launch another NRO classified spy satellite on a Delta 4 heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral. That mission, designated NROL-44, was supposed to leave in August, but a series of launch problems kept the heavy Delta 4 grounded.
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: Stephen Clark 1.
[ad_2]
Source link
