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Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) was an American aerospace, defense, and sporting arms firm headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The company operated across 22 states, Puerto Rico, and internationally. ATK revenue in fiscal year 2014 was about US$4.78 billion.
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft. All spaceplanes to date have been rocket-powered for takeoff and climb, but have then landed as unpowered gliders.
Delta IV was a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family. It flew 45 missions from 2002 to 2024. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, the Delta IV became a United Launch Alliance (ULA) product in 2006. The Delta IV was primarily a launch vehicle for United States Air Force (USAF) military payloads, but was also used to launch a number of United States government non-military payloads and a single commercial satellite.
National Security Space Launch (NSSL) is a program of the United States Space Force (USSF) intended to assure access to space for United States Department of Defense and other United States government payloads. The program is managed by the Assured Access to Space Directorate (SSC/AA) of the Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC), in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office.
Private spaceflight refers to spaceflight activities undertaken by non-governmental entities, such as corporations, individuals, or non-profit organizations. This contrasts with public spaceflight, which is traditionally conducted by government agencies like NASA, ESA, or JAXA.
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. It is used for DoD, NASA, and Commercial payloads. It is America's longest-serving active rocket. After 87 launches, in August 2021 ULA announced that Atlas V would be retired, and all 29 remaining launches had been sold. As of June 2024, 16 launches remain. Other future ULA launches will use the new Vulcan Centaur rocket. Production ceased in 2024.
Commercial use of space is the provision of goods or services of commercial value by using equipment sent into Earth orbit or outer space.
United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets, but the company subcontracts out the production of rocket engines and solid rocket boosters.
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) was a NASA program to coordinate the development of vehicles for the delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station by private companies. The program was announced on 18 January 2006 and successfully flew all cargo demonstration flights by September 2013, when the program ended.
Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard, and Hermann Oberth, each of whom published works proposing rockets as the means for spaceflight. The first successful large-scale rocket programs were initiated in Nazi Germany by Wernher von Braun. The Soviet Union took the lead in the post-war Space Race, launching the first satellite, the first animal, the first human and the first woman into orbit. The United States would then land the first men on the Moon in 1969. Through the late 20th century, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and China were also working on projects to reach space.
Castor is a family of solid-fuel rocket stages and boosters built by Thiokol and used on a variety of launch vehicles. They were initially developed as the second-stage motor of the Scout rocket. The design was based on the MGM-29 Sergeant, a surface-to-surface missile developed for the United States Army at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Antares, known during early development as Taurus II, is an expendable launch system developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation and the Pivdenne Design Bureau to launch the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's COTS and CRS programs. Able to launch payloads heavier than 8,000 kg (18,000 lb) into low Earth orbit, Antares is the largest rocket operated by Northrop Grumman. Antares launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and made its inaugural flight on April 21, 2013. Antares 100 was retired in 2014 and series 200 was retired in 2023 due to component unavailability. As of January 2024 Antares 300 is under development.
Cygnus is an expendable American cargo spacecraft used for International Space Station (ISS) logistics missions. Cygnus was developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, partially funded by NASA under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. To create Cygnus, Orbital paired the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, built by Thales Alenia Space and previously used by the Space Shuttle for ISS logistics, with a service module based on Orbital's GEOStar, a satellite bus. After a successful demonstration flight in 2013, Orbital was chosen to receive a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract. A larger Enhanced Cygnus was introduced in 2015. Northrop Grumman later purchased Orbital and has continued to operate Cygnus missions.
Stargazer is a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar built in 1974, that was modified in 1994 for use by Orbital Sciences as a mother ship launch pad for the Pegasus launch vehicle. As of October 2022, 45 rockets have been launched from it, using the Pegasus-H and Pegasus-XL configurations. As of 2019, Stargazer is the only L-1011 airframe still airworthy.
A space tug is a type of spacecraft used to transfer spaceborne cargo from one orbit to another orbit with different energy characteristics. The term can include expendable upper stages or spacecraft that are not necessarily a part of their launch vehicle. However, it can also refer to a spacecraft that transports payload already in space to another location in outer space, such as in the Space Transportation System concept. An example would be moving a spacecraft from a low Earth orbit (LEO) to a higher-energy orbit like a geostationary transfer orbit, a lunar transfer, or an escape trajectory.
Space launch market competition is the manifestation of market forces in the launch service provider business. In particular it is the trend of competitive dynamics among payload transport capabilities at diverse prices having a greater influence on launch purchasing than the traditional political considerations of country of manufacture or the national entity using, regulating or licensing the launch service.
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector of Northrop Grumman from 2018 to 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems in 2015. Orbital ATK was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems designed, built, and delivered space, defense, and aviation-related systems to customers around the world both as a prime contractor and as a merchant supplier. It had a workforce of approximately 12,000 employees dedicated to aerospace and defense including about 4,000 engineers and scientists; 7,000 manufacturing and operations specialists; and 1,000 management and administration personnel. With Northrop Grumman's reorganization of its divisions effective January 1, 2020, NGIS was split, with most of the sector merging with other Northrop Grumman businesses into a new Space Systems sector.
The following is a timeline of important events in the history of private spaceflight, including important technical as well as legislative and political advances. Though the industry has its origins in the early 1960s, soon after the beginning of the Space Age, private companies did not begin conducting launches into space until the 1980s, and it was not until the 21st century that multiple companies began privately developing and operating launch vehicles and spacecraft in earnest.
OmegA was a medium-lift to heavy-lift launch vehicle concept that spent several years in development by Northrop Grumman during 2016–2020, with that development substantially funded by the U.S. government. OmegA was intended for launching U.S. national security satellites, as part of the U.S. Department of the Air Force National Security Space Launch (NSSL) replacement program.
References
- ↑ "Launch Services Definition: 101 Samples". Law Insider. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
- ↑ "Launch Service Providers". RocketLaunch.org.
- ↑ "Launch Database | SpaceFund" . Retrieved 2023-05-20.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 The Annual Compendium of Commercial Space Transportation: 2018 (Report). United States Government (Federal Aviation Administration). January 2018. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ↑ "Propulsion Products Catalog" (PDF). Orbital ATK. 5 April 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- ↑ Clark, Stephen (14 September 2018). "Engineers say goodbye to society-changing Delta 2 rocket – Spaceflight Now". Spaceflight Now. Pole Star Publications. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ↑ Federal Aviation Administration (2012). "Commercial Space Transportation: 2011 Year in Review". In Freeman SO, Butler KI (eds.). Commercial Space Industry: Manufacturing, Suborbitals and Transportation (This is an edited, reformatted and augmented version of the Federal Aviation Administration, HQ-121525.INDD, dated January 2012.). Space Science, Exploration and Policies. New York: Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62257-303-5 . Retrieved 2022-04-22.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Moore, Maurice H. (February 2011). Department of Defense Spacelift In A Fiscally Constrained Environment (MS (Master of Military Art and Science) thesis). U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
- ↑ https://www.stokespace.com
- ↑ https://www.abqjournal.com/news/local/rocket-carrying-cremains-crashes-after-launching-from-spaceport-america/article_e0eedfcc-cf87-5596-a11f-33e8c364cf1d.html
- ↑ https://www.virgingalactic.com
- ↑ Brooks, Timothy A. (1991). "Regulating International Trade in Launch Services" . High Technology Law Journal . 6 (1): 66. eISSN 2380-4734. ISSN 0885-2715. JSTOR 24122277 . Retrieved 2 July 2022.
- ↑ Heiney, Anna (2018-04-10). "LSP Overview". NASA. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
- ↑ "Mandate | NSIL". www.nsilindia.co.in. Retrieved 2023-08-02.