Quote from: spacenut on 04/22/2016 07:10 pmI thought Orbital bought out Rocketdyne or Aerojet, one of which made the RL-10. Orbital and ATK merged. Aerojet and Rocketdyne merged with each other. AJR makes the RL-10. OA and AJR merging would raise all sorts of antitrust concerns, since it would concentrate pretty much all US space propulsion work in one company.
I thought Orbital bought out Rocketdyne or Aerojet, one of which made the RL-10.
If BO is to develop this upper stage, it might be reusable so it would work on their proposed reusable booster. Is ATK/Orbital going to pay for development of this upper stage? Or is BO going to take their existing rocket, add the vacuum nozzle to their engine, so not much development would be needed? Maybe just a few modifications for landing and attaching to the second stage solid.
What is the potential customer for this Orbital ATK rocket?Can the overall market really support 4 launch vehicles in the USA? Is there enough business to keep them all viable?SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin and now Orbital ATK?
Now it's: Antares; Atlas V, Delta IV; Delta II; Falcon 9FT; (5 EELV's)It will be: Antares; OATK solid, BlueOrigin orbital launcher; Falcon 9FT; Falcon 9 Heavy; Vulcan (-Centaur | - ACES) (6 EELV) and SLS.I think Antares and BO Orbital launcher serve the same market. They could develop into the same system.BO uses BE-3 for New Sheperd; BE-3U and BE-4 for its own launcher.BE-3U could be used on: Antares; OATK Solid EELV; Vulcan-ACES. And BE-4 will most likely be in Vulcan.Vulcan and BO Orbital launcher could become a new Delta IV | Delta II launcher family. Large multi segment solids have to be assembled verticaly, the VAB has lots of overhead cranes that are designed to assemble solids. I think using the VAB and LC-39B is a beter idea then developing new facilities. Possibly a MLP can be developed that can both support the Solid EELV and can serve as backup for SLS.As written all depends on SLS. With it it could work, without definitely not. I think that Antares will get the hartest time in a tight launch marked. Next will be OATK Solid EELV.
Oh, I believe that the key here is the CRS-2 contract. They could get one or two launches assured with that. And they would probably be able to take a lot of mass to the ISS.Sent from my Classic using Tapatalk
Quote from: Sam Ho on 04/22/2016 08:02 pmQuote from: spacenut on 04/22/2016 07:10 pmI thought Orbital bought out Rocketdyne or Aerojet, one of which made the RL-10. Orbital and ATK merged. Aerojet and Rocketdyne merged with each other. AJR makes the RL-10. OA and AJR merging would raise all sorts of antitrust concerns, since it would concentrate pretty much all US space propulsion work in one company.Indeed two companies = competition. and that's a good thing.Frankly becoming a monopolist is what Airbus Safran Launchers is pushing to in Europe.I hope Airbus and Safran merge into ASL; and MT Aerospace and Avio merge into ??.I don't want ASL to also take over Avio.Sorry for being of topic.
The stick. Is. Back.
- SLS booster 3-segments.