Launch News Orbital's Antares Maiden Flight & ORB-D "G. David Low" Cygnus Demo updates.

[Cosmic Penguin]

A true shame I didn't have enough time between work and the launch to try to see it on the horizon line. Did anyone get to see this even in person or on their horizon?

I saw many reports of seeing the rocket flying, even as far as in NYC!

 

[boogabooga]

Interesting. Launch was KSP-style, with a suborbital lob, then a coast to near apogee before firing the second stage.

Big fan of the on-board cameras. Beautiful space views.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Stunning first flight!

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

 

[N_Molson]

Nice launch, very interesting on-board views and telemetry data. :thumbup:

 

[Urwumpe]

Interesting. Launch was KSP-style, with a suborbital lob, then a coast to near apogee before firing the second stage.

The long coast phase is actually necessary because the second stage is a Castor 30A solid rocket motor. The short 120-150 seconds burn time are a maximum, since you would otherwise have to make the second stage wider in diameter (A wider SRB with centrale bore can burn longer, a longer one produces more thrust). And you can't simply let the first stage burn longer to fill the gap.

 

[Ripley]

Possibly the worst pick of a camera for liftoff I've seen haha...

Second that.

 

[orb]

NASAtelevision:

 

[N_Molson]

Interesting. Launch was KSP-style, with a suborbital lob, then a coast to near apogee before firing the second stage.

Speaking of KSP, you can reproduce easily that kind of rocket putting the cheap sort of solid boosters (the short one) atop a liquid first stage (powered by a LVT-45 engine). You'll have to wait to be near the periapsis to lit the booster and achieve orbit.

 

[kuddel]

Does anybody know why the three phonesat names are now "alexander", "graham" and "zoidberg"? Wasn't "Bell" supposed to be the name?
I can not find any information on that...

My main source is of course http://www.phonesat.org ...even the TLE file has ZOIDBERG as third name: http://www.phonesat.org/phonesat.txt

Hmmm, copyright issues?

 

[Pipcard]

Why not Zoidberg?

 

[kuddel]

Why not Zoidberg?

I have no problem with Zoidberg I only have not found any reason why they "renamed" one.

 

[orb]

nasaames:

 

[boogabooga]

The long coast phase is actually necessary because the second stage is a Castor 30A solid rocket motor. The short 120-150 seconds burn time are a maximum, since you would otherwise have to make the second stage wider in diameter (A wider SRB with centrale bore can burn longer, a longer one produces more thrust). And you can't simply let the first stage burn longer to fill the gap.

I think it's telling that Orbital isn't too ambitious with this as say SpaceX is with the Falcon series. It seems to be meant to launch Cygnus to ISS orbit and that's it. Without restart capability or even the ability to cut the second stage burn short, it appears as if different mission profiles/payload masses would be very difficult without a major redesign of the rocket.

Orbital has been on the block for a while and knows how hard this stuff is.


Edit: BTW, does this rocket remind anyone else of the Jarvis S?

 

[Alfastar]

I think it's telling that Orbital isn't too ambitious with this as say SpaceX is with the Falcon series. It seems to be meant to launch Cygnus to ISS orbit and that's it. Without restart capability or even the ability to cut the second stage burn short, it appears as if different mission profiles/payload masses would be very difficult without a major redesign of the rocket.

Orbital has been on the block for a while and knows how hard this stuff is.


Edit: BTW, does this rocket remind anyone else of the Jarvis S?

Well, I think there choice to have a solid rocket as second stage because its cheaper then the normal liquid LOX/LH2 system. I think its also the reason why there use LOX/Kerosene (RP-1?) for the first stage. Orbital is maybe less active in developed of build a whole Antares rocket series, but there known what there do.

 

[boogabooga]

Actually I was a bit premature on that. Looks like they have plans for a hypergolic, restart-able third stage.

 

[Urwumpe]

Actually I was a bit premature on that. Looks like they have plans for a hypergolic, restart-able third stage.

Exactly. Also you can off-load solid fuel from a stage or fly S-turns with the solid rocket motor stage to waste a bit of impulse, if you should launch much smaller payloads.

The SRM as second stage has just the disadvantage, that it is pretty inaccurate and produces a lot of residual thrust by outgassing after the burn.

 

[boogabooga]

Exactly. Also you can off-load solid fuel from a stage or fly S-turns with the solid rocket motor stage to waste a bit of impulse, if you should launch much smaller payloads.

What about adding extra ballast?

 

[Urwumpe]

What about adding extra ballast?

Also a possibility, but then, adding extra nanosats or cube sats is often better.

 

[N_Molson]

The SRM as second stage has just the disadvantage, that it is pretty inaccurate and produces a lot of residual thrust by outgassing after the burn.

And it has a rather low Isp, in comparison to liquid engines, even hypergolic. But the simplicity of the design, lower costs and storage conveniencies are not to be neglected, of course.

 

[orb]

Parabolic Arc: Cygnus Fueled at Wallops Flight Facility

Orbital Propulsion Team members in SCAPE suits. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)

Cygnus being removed from the CVC at building V-55. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)​