#orbital-atk

[okan170]

Fairing Breakaway (for SFI) by okan170

S.S. Gene Cernan sheds its payload fairing on its way to the ISS. Article:

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/orbital-sciences-corp/we-shall-return-s-s-gene-cernan-lifts-off-from-mars-pad-0a/

[okan170]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmfhzYo_i8E)

Northrup-Grumman (formerly Orbital-ATK) presents their new proposal for the Lunar Gateway program elements.  The final gateway design is likely to be a combination of different designs from various nations and companies.

[okan170]

Orbital-ATK’s submission for the NASA NEXT-Step project to create a Lunar-orbiting habitat for Orion to visit in the 2020s.  Also in the running are Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and Bigelow Aerospace.  These habitats would be developed using the COTS style fixed-price contract to procure the habitats themselves, and cost-plus for the other spacecraft systems, requiring “skin in the game” from the companies similar to the Commercial Crew program.

[okan170]

Orbital-ATK moves to rent out one of the high bays of NASA’s mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).  If all goes well, their EELV-class vehicle would be stacked inside and rolled to pad 39B just like the Space Launch System.  Preliminary estimates from images imply 2 solid stages based on the proposed “Dark Knight’ advanced SLS booster segments all topped by a BlueOrigin-provided Liquid Hydrogen upper stage.  This vehicle would theoretically be able to compete with SpaceX and ULA for US Government launches.