Presumably after ULA having declined Orbital/ATK's buyout bid, Orbital/ATK now want to try to outcompete ULA instead. If ULA implodes with RD-180 issues and competition they may get an opening, but otherwise it would be an uphill battle.
Scratching my head on this one too. Is there any way that Liberty makes sense? I can't see any advantage over ULA or SpaceX offerings, to say nothing of foreign competition.
Quote from: shooter6947 on 04/21/2016 08:22 pmPresumably after ULA having declined Orbital/ATK's buyout bid, Orbital/ATK now want to try to outcompete ULA instead. If ULA implodes with RD-180 issues and competition they may get an opening, but otherwise it would be an uphill battle.Think you are mixing this up with Aerojets buyout offer. OrbitalATK has actually increased cooperation with ULA by winning SRB contracts for Atlas V and Vulcan.
Wonder if part of the reason for this new launcher is to have something to offer for future Cygnus flights if RD-181 engines become unavailable for the Antares 2?Also wondering if ATK is planning to parachute the first stage into the sea and reuse it like they did with SRB's.
Also wondering if ATK is planning to parachute the first stage into the sea and reuse it like they did with SRB's.