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#60
by
Lars-J
on 20 Apr, 2018 00:13
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A 4m fairing makes little sense if their third stage is 5m in diameter. (BTW, are they building that stage in house or contracting it out?)
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#61
by
russianhalo117
on 20 Apr, 2018 00:21
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A 4m fairing makes little sense if their third stage is 5m in diameter. (BTW, are they building that stage in house or contracting it out?)
There is nothing stated publicly however they have facilities in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Arkansas River Valley and elsewhere in several regions with river access. The stage they show looks quite like a DCSS but there are no indication that ULA will build the stage. We ought to know more in the coming months and 2019. I guess OATK (NG) will need an OmegA Mariner ship as I down know how else they can transport it unless they build the stage at both launch sites.
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#62
by
Tomness
on 20 Apr, 2018 00:33
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There is nothing stated publicly however they have facilities in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Arkansas River Valley and elsewhere in several regions with river access. The stage they show looks quite like a DCSS but there are no indication that ULA will build the stage. We ought to know more in the coming months and 2019. I guess OATK (NG) will need an OmegA Mariner ship as I down know how else they can transport it unless they build the stage at both launch sites.
Would about barging another mobile crawler & tower from KSC to West Coast?
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#63
by
russianhalo117
on 20 Apr, 2018 00:44
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There is nothing stated publicly however they have facilities in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Arkansas River Valley and elsewhere in several regions with river access. The stage they show looks quite like a DCSS but there are no indication that ULA will build the stage. We ought to know more in the coming months and 2019. I guess OATK (NG) will need an OmegA Mariner ship as I down know how else they can transport it unless they build the stage at both launch sites.
Would about barging another mobile crawler & tower from KSC to West Coast?
There is not a causeway and infrastructure at VAFB. Fixed pads are used where vertical inteintegration is required. This would be a case where VI is required.
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#64
by
MATTBLAK
on 20 Apr, 2018 00:48
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A 4m fairing makes little sense if their third stage is 5m in diameter. (BTW, are they building that stage in house or contracting it out?)
If the third stage is 5 meters in diameter; is it essentially a twin-engined version of the Delta IV upper stage?
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#65
by
DaveS
on 20 Apr, 2018 00:57
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There is nothing stated publicly however they have facilities in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Arkansas River Valley and elsewhere in several regions with river access. The stage they show looks quite like a DCSS but there are no indication that ULA will build the stage. We ought to know more in the coming months and 2019. I guess OATK (NG) will need an OmegA Mariner ship as I down know how else they can transport it unless they build the stage at both launch sites.
Would about barging another mobile crawler & tower from KSC to West Coast?
There is not a causeway and infrastructure at VAFB. Fixed pads are used where vertical inteintegration is required. This would be a case where VI is required.
And there's only two crawlers in existance, both owned by NASA. And they have no interest in selling either one, especially not CT-2 which has been upgraded to be able to handle SLS. Another hurdle is the sheer massive weight of a crawler, 6.6 million lbs or 2.98 million metric tons. They can only move on a specially built gravel road called a Crawlerway which is way wider than any normal road. Not a simple project at the very hilly South Base of Vandenberg.
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#66
by
Lars-J
on 20 Apr, 2018 01:33
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A 4m fairing makes little sense if their third stage is 5m in diameter. (BTW, are they building that stage in house or contracting it out?)
If the third stage is 5 meters in diameter; is it essentially a twin-engined version of the Delta IV upper stage?
Pretty much, the artwork makes it look very similar, although that may be artistic vagueness at this point. But it does bring into focus that this rocket will be very large (the DCSS is huge!), and they must be cutting some interesting deals if they can keep the cost down.
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#67
by
deruch
on 20 Apr, 2018 02:33
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My guess for how the name was chosen:
The Northrop guys told the Orbital guys, "This is the last damn time you all are gonna get to design one of these." ---> Omega
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#68
by
woods170
on 20 Apr, 2018 07:04
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The Delta II pad seems more right-sized, though, the Delta IV pad has a lot of expensive infrastructure.
That big core SRM is going to require a substantial flame trench. Substantially bigger than the one that is currently underneath SLC-2W.
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#69
by
ethan829
on 20 Apr, 2018 12:06
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#70
by
ZachF
on 20 Apr, 2018 12:21
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A 4m fairing makes little sense if their third stage is 5m in diameter. (BTW, are they building that stage in house or contracting it out?)
The upper stage looks an awful lot like the Delta IV US/ ICPS.
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#71
by
ZachF
on 20 Apr, 2018 12:28
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Another hurdle is the sheer massive weight of a crawler, 6.6 million lbs or 2.98 million metric tons.
I think you're off a little bit... 2.98 million tonnes is equal to 30 aircraft carriers. ;P
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#72
by
DaveS
on 20 Apr, 2018 12:35
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Another hurdle is the sheer massive weight of a crawler, 6.6 million lbs or 2.98 million metric tons.
I think you're off a little bit... 2.98 million tonnes is equal to 30 aircraft carriers. ;P
Yes, I converted things wrong. I of course meant 2, 980 metric tons.
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#73
by
Rik ISS-fan
on 20 Apr, 2018 21:41
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GEM-63XL on Vulcan
GEM-63XLT on OmegA
4m fairing is currently not proposed. Also currently developed is Castor-900 and a few other configurations per their latest motor catalog.
Thanks for correcting me, by sharing new info.
I can only find the 2016 motor catalog. Could you share a link to the most resent version? Thanks in advance.
(There are two versions on OATKs website a May 2016 and a October 2016
8 version.)
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#74
by
russianhalo117
on 21 Apr, 2018 01:45
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GEM-63XL on Vulcan
GEM-63XLT on OmegA
4m fairing is currently not proposed. Also currently developed is Castor-900 and a few other configurations per their latest motor catalog.
Thanks for correcting me, by sharing new info.
I can only find the 2016 motor catalog. Could you share a link to the most resent version? Thanks in advance.
(There are two versions on OATKs website a May 2016 and a October 2018 version.)
The 2016 is most recent on the site however there a wrong file that is supposed to be the 2017 update. 2018 is not out yet thus GEM-63XLT is not listed yet. As for Castor-900. The Castor designations are actively replacing the steel case RSRM series. There will be new composite versions offered in the future. Composite segments are longer than their steel predecessors. SLS SRB is 5 segments whereas the composite Castor-1200 is 4 segments. Castor-900 will be 3 , Castor-600 is 2 and Castor 300 is 1. It is yet to be foreseen if they will introduce half segments to replace the rest of the existing RSRM series.
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#75
by
TrevorMonty
on 21 Apr, 2018 10:19
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The Omega Heavy at 7800kg to GEO is slightly more powerful than Vulcan 7000.
Whether it can manage 36t to LEO it not clear as OA don't publish LEO performance.
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#76
by
russianhalo117
on 22 Apr, 2018 17:47
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A 4m fairing makes little sense if their third stage is 5m in diameter. (BTW, are they building that stage in house or contracting it out?)
If the third stage is 5 meters in diameter; is it essentially a twin-engined version of the Delta IV upper stage?
Pretty much, the artwork makes it look very similar, although that may be artistic vagueness at this point. But it does bring into focus that this rocket will be very large (the DCSS is huge!), and they must be cutting some interesting deals if they can keep the cost down.
One possibility is OATK is buying the IP rights and such for DCSS 5 meter so that they can create a modern 2 RL-10C-1 engine derivative. OmegA I dont believe hasn't yet gone through CDR so the stage design might change into a more efficient design.
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#77
by
TrevorMonty
on 24 Apr, 2018 20:54
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#78
by
ranger84
on 26 Apr, 2018 04:24
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I remember reading years ago about the Air Force wanting the ability to rapidly launch large payloads to orbit, I’m wondering if this LV wouldn’t lend itself to be able to go from cold storage to launch quickly, kind of like when they went from Titan II’s to Minutemen ICBM’s.
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#79
by
Lars-J
on 26 Apr, 2018 17:31
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I remember reading years ago about the Air Force wanting the ability to rapidly launch large payloads to orbit, I’m wondering if this LV wouldn’t lend itself to be able to go from cold storage to launch quickly, kind of like when they went from Titan II’s to Minutemen ICBM’s.
For solid LVs of this scale, nothing is quick though. The munitions analogue doesn't quite hold here, unless you store your LVs on launch pads ready to go. (and pads are not that plentiful nor cheap)
You could likely put liquid stages in storage and use them up just as fast. Also remember that OmegA has a liquid third stage which it cannot launch without.
