Orbital ATK to Launch NASA ICON Mission from Remote US Army Facility

On 15 June local time/14 June EST,Orbital ATK will launch NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite,the first ionospheric probe to be launched in 10 years.The mission will attempt to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge about this mysterious transition zone between Earth's atmosphere and outer space,where a plasma of charged particles from the Sun can distort or even completely disrupt telecommunications and GPS signals,and which can be difficult for spacecraft to navigate because of the variable drag they may experience there.The spacecraft will be launched on Orbital's Pegasus XL rocket which will be dropped from under the wing of their Stargazer L1011 aircraft,a converted Lockheed airliner.
Our increased situational awareness of the region will help protect astronauts and satellites alike,NASA said.*
On 6 June,the Stargazer will ferry Pegasus to US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA),Republic of the Marshall Islands,in the distant reaches of the Pacific Ocean,by way of a refueling stop at Hickam Air Force Base,Hawaii,on a 12-hour flight in total.Kwajalein Atoll,a group of 11 islands the US Army leases from the Marshall Islands,is home of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site,informally called the Reagan Test Site (RTS),which is primarily a test facility for US missile defence and space research programmes.The Site,under the US Army Missile and Space Command, provides range instrumentation;missile launch facilities;a mission control centre;range safety;meteorological support;and support for space operations.
A suite of unique instrumentation on the Atoll's islands includes precision metric and signature radars;stationary and mobile telemetry;optical recording;and a secure fiberoptic data network.RTS is a tracking station for crewed spaceflight and NASA research,as well as a facility for ICBM tests;ABM interceptor tests;meteorological sounding rockets;and a commercial spaceport for SpaceX on Omelek Island.*
The islands of Kwajalein Atoll encircle a huge central lagoon that is a splashdown site for US Strategic Command's ICBM re-entry vehicles (warheads),for example.The broad range of sensitive national security activity at the RTS encompasses hypersonic weapons tests;NASA research projects;ICBM tests;and Ballistic Missile Defence Tests (main US facility).Bechtel Corporation provides logistical and other support functions at RTS,and a civilian workforce of Marshall Islanders is employed there.*
The US Army's Lockheed Martin Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) was developed at RTS.*
Orbital ATK (OA),Lockheed Martin (LMT)

Fire in the Desert:NASA Tests SLS Booster for First Flight

On Tuesday 28 January,NASA lit up the desert with a tremendous and lengthy spurt of flame as it tested the Space Launch System booster at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems in Promontory,Utah.It was the second and final test firing before the first launch of the integrated Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket on the unmanned Exploration Mission-1 to a high orbit over the Moon in late 2018,NASA said.The two-minute full-duration qualification ground test for the SLS booster provided NASA with critical data to support booster qualification for flight and test the motor at the colder end of its accepted propellant temperature range at a targeted 40 degrees Fahrenheit.*
EM-1 will mark the farthest distance a human-rated spacecraft has ever traveled from the earth.The Orion/SLS pair will eventually launch astronauts into deep space,including an asteroid-redirect mission and then on to the Mars system,beginning with EM-2.*
The first SLS booster test had been successfully completed in March 2015 and demonstrated good performance at the higher end of the accepted propellant range of 90 degrees F.Testing at the extremes experienced on the launch pad is important to understanding the effects of temperature on the propellant's ballistic performance.*
The SLS booster was lying on its side on Test Stand 97 in a brushy and hilly desert landscape.A problem with a ground systems computer unrelated to the flight hardware caused a three hour delay of the test.Some 600 gigabytes of data were collected on the 82 test objectives as a crowd of at least hundreds of observers looked on from a mile and a half away.Former astronaut and now Orbital ATK Vice President Charlie Precourt described it as a beautiful test.The contractor aims to preserve the forensic data,freezing everything that happened at the moment of shutdown and dissecting the motor for qualification,Mr.Precourt said.Film,acoustics and temperature data will be digested.
The company is well into casing the propellant of the left booster of EM-1.Three of the total of 10 booster segments-five for each booster-needed for EM-1 are already completed and fueled for flight.*

Orbital ATK,Inc (OA)

Manned Spaceflight Update:First Space Launch System Booster Test;International Space Station One-Year Crew Nears Launch

On 11 March,a major milestone was reached when the Space Launch System's solid rocket booster passed the first of two flight qualification tests for deep space missions.The two minute test mirrored an actual flight,since it lasted the same amount of time the booster will burn on liftoff.The test was conducted at the Orbital ATK test facility in Promontory,Utah.After the second qualification test 2016,the flight booster hardware will be transported to Kennedy Space Center for the first flight of the SLS and Orion spacecraft together,Exploration Mission 1 in 2018.
The work being done around the country today to build SLS is laying a solid foundation for future exploration missions, and those missions will enable us to pioneer far into the solar system,said Dr.William Gerstenmaier,NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations.*
The SLS booster was heated for months to reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit,so it could be tested at the highest end of the propellant temperature range.The second test in early 2016 will test the booster at 40 F,the low end of the propellant temperature range.
Our partnership with Orbital ATK and more than 500 suppliers across the country is keeping us on the path to building the most powerful rocket in the world,said SLS program director Todd May.Some 102 design objectives were assessed during the test with more than 531 instrumentation channels.The SLS booster met applicable ballistic performance requirements,including thrust and pressure.Data was also gathered on the new internal motor insulation and liner and the improved nozzle design.
Two SLS boosters will be grouped with four RS-25 main engines for the launch,operating in parallel for the first two minutes of the launch.The boosters provide more than 70% of the thrust required to escape Earth's gravitational field.SLS will be configured for a 70-metric-tonne/77 tonne lift capacity to carry the unmanned Orion spacecraft beyond Low Earth Orbit in EM-1,the first flight of the integrated system.The projected date of EM-1 is 30 September 2018.On future manned missions to deep space,SLS will be configured for a record-breaking lift capacity of 130-metric-tonnes/143 tonnes.*
On 27 March,NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly,Captain US Navy Retired,and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will be launched for the One-Year Crew Mission aboard the International Space Station,accompanied by Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.They will be launched aboard a Soyuz YMA-16M spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome,Kazakhstan.Kelly will be the first NASA astronaut to spend a year in space,but Russia has completed four manned missions of at least one year in duration.Padalka will return to Earth before Kelly and Kornienko.
The One-Year Crew will pave the way for the deep space missions of the future,including Orion flights,by gathering critical physiological and psychological data on the effects of long duration space flights.American and Russian scientists will collaborate on the project using the ISS technology,which is more advanced than the technology Russia had for its long duration studies some 20 years ago,yielding a more comprehensive picture.*
Orbital ATK Inc (ATK)