4th quarter - SATMEX ?, ABS ? - Falcon 9 v1.1 - Canaveral SLC-40
Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 10/30/2012 01:43 amAerojet has apparently test-fired the second stage of this under-the-radar rocket (the Orbus-7S) in late August: http://www.aerojet.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=335I hope Aerojet or UHA offers a webcast for the launches starting from fall 2013: there hasn't been a rail-launched orbital launcher from the US since a long time ago! (Apparently it will even make use of a left-over rail launcher for the Scout rocket that last flew almost 20 years ago!) And Kauai island offers probably one of the best scenes for a launch site around the world. I wonder why this project went completely under the radar: this project was first proposed by a Sandia National Laboratories team back in 2000, but at that time there was no funding. Did DARPA fund it? (the second flight will launch the ORS-4 payloads for them)The second flight (ORS-4 mission) will carry HiakaSat-1 (formerly HawaiiSat 1) as the main payload and several cubesats (including 8 EDSN cubesats for NASA).
Aerojet has apparently test-fired the second stage of this under-the-radar rocket (the Orbus-7S) in late August: http://www.aerojet.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=335I hope Aerojet or UHA offers a webcast for the launches starting from fall 2013: there hasn't been a rail-launched orbital launcher from the US since a long time ago! (Apparently it will even make use of a left-over rail launcher for the Scout rocket that last flew almost 20 years ago!) And Kauai island offers probably one of the best scenes for a launch site around the world. I wonder why this project went completely under the radar: this project was first proposed by a Sandia National Laboratories team back in 2000, but at that time there was no funding. Did DARPA fund it? (the second flight will launch the ORS-4 payloads for them)
Quote from: Skyrocket on 10/30/2012 06:50 amQuote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 10/30/2012 01:43 amAerojet has apparently test-fired the second stage of this under-the-radar rocket (the Orbus-7S) in late August: http://www.aerojet.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=335I hope Aerojet or UHA offers a webcast for the launches starting from fall 2013: there hasn't been a rail-launched orbital launcher from the US since a long time ago! (Apparently it will even make use of a left-over rail launcher for the Scout rocket that last flew almost 20 years ago!) And Kauai island offers probably one of the best scenes for a launch site around the world. I wonder why this project went completely under the radar: this project was first proposed by a Sandia National Laboratories team back in 2000, but at that time there was no funding. Did DARPA fund it? (the second flight will launch the ORS-4 payloads for them)The second flight (ORS-4 mission) will carry HiakaSat-1 (formerly HawaiiSat 1) as the main payload and several cubesats (including 8 EDSN cubesats for NASA).
The first 6 satellites will be launched as a part of the STP-2 mission on a Falcon-Heavy in 2015 from Cape Canaveral.
Changes on December 6th
I think we'll probably do four flights, that's my best guess, five if we're lucky. One of those flights will be the last of the Falcon 9 version one and we expect to do at least three flights of the upgraded Falcon 9, and we might do a test flight, we'll see.
