OK, I have noticed that some Pegasus missions carried a HAPS auxiliary stage, and some a "HAPS-Lite". Are they simply different names for different stages, or are they indeed different, and if so, how?
Where have you seen "HAPS-Lite" mentioned? I have never heard of one, but just in case I checked with Brian Baldwin, the current Pegasus Program Manager, and he has never heard of one, either.
AFAIK there is only one HAPS.
I can, though, provide the history of the name. When, sometime around 1991-1992 we designed the device (meant to trim the dispersions of the solid third stage rather than provide significant delta-V like an additional stage would) we called it the "Precision Injection Kit", or "PIK" for short. Bob Feconda was the PIK program Manager.
Soon everybody started calling it the "PIK Kit" and, unhappy with the redundancy, we decided to re-name it the "Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System", or "HAPS".
Well, it didn't take long for it to become the "HAPS System".
And so it goes...
Where have you seen "HAPS-Lite" mentioned? I have never heard of one, but just in case I checked with Brian Baldwin, the current Pegasus Program Manager, and he has never heard of one, either.
AFAIK there is only one HAPS.
I can, though, provide the history of the name. When, sometime around 1991-1992 we designed the device (meant to trim the dispersions of the solid third stage rather than provide significant delta-V like an additional stage would) we called it the "Precision Injection Kit", or "PIK" for short. Bob Feconda was the PIK program Manager.
Soon everybody started calling it the "PIK Kit" and, unhappy with the redundancy, we decided to re-name it the "Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System", or "HAPS".
Well, it didn't take long for it to become the "HAPS System".
And so it goes...
For the Aug 1998 Orbcomm launch, it was reported that the HAPS had been redesigned to use a titanium tank instead of the old composite prop tank
(which disintegrated in orbit after the 1994 STEP-2 launch). I believe this new configuration was referred to in Orbital press info at the time as HAPS-Lite.
- Jonathan
For the Aug 1998 Orbcomm launch, it was reported that the HAPS had been redesigned to use a titanium tank instead of the old composite prop tank
(which disintegrated in orbit after the 1994 STEP-2 launch). I believe this new configuration was referred to in Orbital press info at the time as HAPS-Lite.
- Jonathan
Ah! What a tangled web we weave...
Jonathan, you are indeed the tribe's Corporate Memory...
Anyhow, there is only one HAPS available for Pegasus, and I'm sure that many of the components (not only the Hydrazine tank) may have been updated since the 90's, if anything else because of obsolescence or unavailability of parts...
... sometime around 1991-1992 we designed the device (meant to trim the dispersions of the solid third stage rather than provide significant delta-V like an additional stage would) we called it the "Precision Injection Kit", or "PIK" for short. Bob Feconda was the PIK program Manager.
Soon everybody started calling it the "PIK Kit" and, unhappy with the redundancy, we decided to re-name it the "Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System", or "HAPS".
Well, it didn't take long for it to become the "HAPS System".
And so it goes...
The "Department of Redundancy Department" never sleeps ...
Soon everybody started calling it the "PIK Kit" and, unhappy with the redundancy, we decided to re-name it the "Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System", or "HAPS".
Well, it didn't take long for it to become the "HAPS System".
And so it goes...
The "Department of Redundancy Department" never sleeps ...
I just hope we never catch Antonioe entering his PIN number into an ATM machine...
--Nick
I just hope we never catch Antonioe entering his PIN number into an ATM machine...
--Nick
Why, it's 8888, of course!
Which I can only assume uses some sort of Super-Hydrazine (that will kill you for just looking at it)...
