Orbital ATK Readies NASA ICON Mission

On 2 June 2018 at Vandenberg Air Force Base,California,Orbital ATK personnel finished all-day operations to move and mate the Pegasus XL rocket to the Stargazer L1011 aircraft,a converted airliner,in preparation for the 15 June (14 June EST) launch of NASA's ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) satellite.The ICON mission,led by UC Berkeley,will study the mysterious boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space,the ionosphere.The ionosphere is a complex transitional area of plasma that thickens in the day with high ultraviolet radiation,charged particles from the Sun,and thins out again at nighttime.It can be difficult for spacecraft to navigate because of the variable drag it subjects them to.To date,relatively little is known about this critical region for telecommunications and GPS signals,which can be distorted or even completely disrupted there,and ICON,a mission of NASA Heliophysics,hopes to fill in some of the gaps.
Our increased situational awareness of the region will help protect astronauts and satellites alike,NASA says.*
The Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket was being prepared to be ferried by the Stargazer aircraft to NASA's Kwajalein Atoll facility in the remote Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific,with a refueling stop at Hickam AFB,Hawaii.The NASA facility,which includes a tracking station for crewed spaceflight and NASA research,is a tenant of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site,which is primarily a test facility for US missile defence and space research programmes.The Reagan Test Site,as it is informally known,is managed by the US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) and assisted by Bechtel Corporation.Besides an impressive array of deep space and other antennae and radars,there are also launch facilities on some of the 11 islands of the Atoll that are leased from the Marshall Islands by the US Army,such as a commercial SpaceX  facility on Omelek Island.*
Orbital ATK (OA)

NASA Wallops Flight Facility,Virginia - Antares Orbital ATK Cygnus CRS-9 OA-9 ISS Resupply Ship Launch

NASA:Houston,We Have a Podcast - The Space Launch System: Part 2

The Space Launch System: Part 2

Orbital ATK Rocket Launch Rescheduled - new ISS crew to follow

Yesterday's planned launch of the Orbital ATK Antares rocket from the NASA Wallops Island Flight Facility,Virginia,was postponed about 24 hours because of a fault detected in a ground support equipment cable (GSE) during a pre-launch checkout,the company said.They have spares on hand and rework procedures are now in process.There are no technical issues with the rocket or Cygnus spacecraft.The launch has been rescheduled for tonight,17 October at 7:40 p.m. EDT.*
The Cygnus spacecraft is carrying cargo for the International Space Station.On Wednesday 19 October,a replacemet crew for the ISS is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,Kazakhstan.Expedition 49's Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko will be joined by NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough and launched in the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft at 4:05 p.m. EDT.They will take two days to test upgraded equipment on the Soyuz,docking at the ISS Poisk module at 5:59 a.m. EDT.The launch has been postponed since 23 September because of a technical issue with the Soyuz that Roscomos repaired.They will return in late February having carried out hundreds of experiments in biology;biotechnology;physial science and Earth science.*
Orbital ATK is an aerospace manufacturer and defence contractor formed from the merger in 2015 of Orbital Sciences Corp. and Alliant Techsystems.It is based in Dulles,Virginia.*
Orbital ATK Inc (OA)

Impressive Cygnus Launch Reassures Orbital ATK and NASA

More than a year since the failed launch attempt of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft,Orbital ATK and NASA could relax yesterday with the flawless ULA Atlas V launch of an enlarged version of Cygnus,which unfurled its new solar panels and was pointed in the right direction to reach the ISS 250 miles above Earth.On 28 October 2014,the Antares rocket had exploded in a spectacular fireball,incinerating the company's spacecraft and the NASA cargo it was to carry to the ISS.Since then,Orbital has ascertained that it was probably the Antares' AJ-26 refurbished Russian engine that was responsible for the explosion in the form of a faulty turbopump;it is working to select and test a replacement for the AJ-26,while at the same time moving to United Launch Alliance,a Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture,for the rockets it needs to meet its eight-mission NASA contract obligations.Yesterday's successful Atlas V launch of the Cygnus SS Deke Slayton II,named for the NASA Mercury program astronaut and director of flight operations who died in 1993,was its fourth ISS resupply mission,the midpoint of the contract.It also marked the return of ISS resupply launches to US soil and Orbital's first launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,Florida.Besides launching from Cape Canaveral,Orbital is now utilising Kennedy Space Center's spacecraft processing facilities and services for the ISS missions.
Cygnus,which contains the Thales Alenia Space Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM),is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Wednesday,when US astronauts Scott Kelly,currently on a one-year mission with Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko,and Kjell Lindgren grab the spacecraft with the Canadarm2 robotic arm and attach it to the earth-facing ISS Unity Module.It will be docked for two months while the astronauts unload the Cygnus of such cargo as the SAFER jetpack,which is a self-contained maneouvering unit mainly for emergency use during spacewalks,as well as such items as science experiments,gases for breathing and a microsatellite launcher with the first ever microsatellite.*
Orbital ATK is a leading aerospace and defence technologies company with over 12,000 employees in 20 US states and several international locations.Its products range from small caliber ammunition all the way up to commercial aerostructures,commercial and government satellites,rockets,missile propulsion systems and advanced space systems for human exploration.*
Orbital ATK Inc (OA),Lockheed Martin (LMT),Boeing (BA)

Exploring Dwarf Planet Ceres:NASA,Spacecraft and Industry

On Friday 6 March,NASA's Dawn spacecraft became the first spacecraft in history to orbit a dwarf planet.At 07:39 ET,Dawn began orbiting dwarf planet Ceres,which is in the Main Asteroid Belt,between Mars and Jupiter.Dawn called home to Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,California to say it was in good health and its ion propulsion engine,one of the first to be tested,was thrusting it into orbit.Principal Investigator Chris Russell of the University of California Los Angeles expressed his exhilaration at hearing the news.Also partnering in the mission are the German Aerospace Center;the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research;the Italian Space Agency;and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute.
Formerly classified as an asteroid,Ceres was elevated to dwarf planet status in 2006;while Pluto was demoted from planet to dwarf planet.The average diameter of Ceres is 590 miles.An icy world,it has craters and bright spots on its surface that are not well understood.Dawn will emerge from Ceres' dark side in April and spiral down for ever-closer photos and measurements.When the mission ends in 2016,Dawn will continue to orbit Ceres,which is 3.1 billion miles from Earth.Dawn first explored the giant asteroid Vesta from 2011-13 before going on to Ceres.*
Orbital ATK,based in Dulles,Virginia,designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.Dawn's ion propulsion system,a deep space engine system,is the next step in propulsion technology.The system is called the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster,or NEXT.Dawn's engines ionise,or charge,Xenon fuel atoms and accelerate these ions out of the back using high voltage.NASA says the ion propulsion system's efficient use of fuel and electrical power enable modern spacecraft to travel farther,faster and cheaper.The systems are use for stationkeeping on communications satellites and for main propulsion on deep space probes.*
Orbital Sciences and Alliant Techsystems completed their merger into Orbital ATK on 10 February.The company's more than 12,000 employees are spread across three divisions:
1.Flight Systems Group in Chandler,Arizona-4500 employees.
2.Defense Systems Group in Baltimore,Maryland-4900 employees.
3.Space Systems Group in Dulles,Virginia-2700 employees.
Besides space probes and other satellites,the company produces the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft under contract to NASA for the International Space Station.Its other products include antennae and radomes;munitions and weapons;as well as rocket engines,missile components and defence electronics.*
Orbital ATK Inc (ATK)