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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0017.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Low-cost boosters lower their sights CAMARILLO American Rocket (Amroc) and Space Services (SSI), which had originally planned to operate low-cost commer cial launch vehicle services this year, have been forced to lower their sights, reports Tim Furniss. Amroc hopes to test a component of its planned Industrial Launch Vehicle (ILV) later this year. SSI may launch its Conestoga lA booster early next year. Both companies are finding the realities of fund-raising diffi cult. Amroc has only recently recalled its 80 employees after laying them off because of the effect of the stockmarket crash on some of its investors. Despite the investment of Houston Industries in Space Services, the company appears to have some way to go yet. It is five years since its last Conestoga test flight, and Conestoga 1A is merely an uprated version of this booster. Amroc's ultimate aim is the ILV-1, the baseline config uration of which has recently been changed. ILV-1. is now a four-stage vehicle using 22 identical hybrid motors, rather than the 19 planned originally. It is capable of placing 1,360kg into 216km- high circular polar orbit or 1,814kg into a similar equa torial orbit. The first ILV-1 commercial delivery of three satellites into orbit is now scheduled for mid-1989 at the earliest. The first stage is a single oxidiser tank with 12 hybrid motors around its circum ference. The motors use solid fuel, primarily polybutadiene rubber. The second, third, and fourth stages are mounted above the first stage in a clus ter of motor tank units. Amroc produces these motors at Camarillo, and has tested them at the US Air Force Astronautics Labora tory at Edwards Air Force Base. The USAF has also granted permission for Amroc to operate * ILV-1 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Before the ILV-1 flies, however, test flights of a more modest nature will take place. The first, this year, will involve a single ILV prop ulsion module with an inte grated liquid-oxygen tank. It FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 2/9 January 1988 will have a thrust of 31,750kg. This 16m-long booster will lift a 99kg Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) payload to an altitude of 160km on a sound ing rocket type mission. A second SDI mission may follow. The next test will be of a new 23m-long interim booster called Slingshot. This is a three-module version with a Star 48 upper stage which will place an SDI payload weigh ing 272kg into low Earth orbit from Vandenberg in 1989. If the market demands it, Sling shot may become the first active commercial vehicle, says Amroc, and it has in fact taken priority over the ILV-1. Negotiations to fly out of Cape Canaveral are also taking place. Delivery of 340kg into low Earth orbit is possible from this east-coast launch site. Amroc has teamed with Globesat of Logan, Utah, to form Orbital Express, a venture to market low-cost launches of several small satellites simultaneously for $995,000 each. A dedicated ILV-1 launch was to cost between $5 million and $8 million. Both Amroc and Space Services see the US Department of Defence, and particularly the SDI Office, as major potential customers. Space Services' Conestoga 1A launch from Wallops Island will place a 317kg military payload into low Earth orbit. The major SSI launch vehi cle is to be the Conestoga II, which will be able to place 1,814kg into low Earth orbit from Wallops Island. In a marketing effort which mirrors Orbital Express, Space Services has linked up American Rocket has revised the design of its Industrial Launch Vehicle fleftj. Space Services has outlined a family of Conestoga boosters fbelowj with the British company NIS Space to offer flights of recov erable capsules. Conestoga II comprises two Morton Thiokol Castor IV boosters which act as the first stage. The second stage is another Castor IV sitting between the first-stage boost ers. The next stage is a half Castor IV. There will be a choice of final stages, but the stage to be marketed on Conestoga II is a Star 37FM motor. Later versions are the Conestoga IV-0, which will have seven Castor IV motors as the first and second stages, a full-size motor for the third stage, and a half Castor IV replacing the Star motor. A geosynchronous Conestoga IV-1, which will have Star 37FM and Star 27 motors as the fifth and sixth stages, could place 2,780kg into geostationary orbit. The first Conestoga to fly, however, will be the Cone stoga lA. This is a single Castor IV first stage, a half Castor IV second stage, and a Star 37FM third stage. The last Conestoga launch from Matagorda Island, Texas, on September 9, 1982, was of a single Castor IV stage "to demonstrate engineering objectives." A o Conestoga IA y - A b A • r wt \ jn1 Conestoga IIA Conestoga IV In
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