In 2014, Orbital ATK launched the Antares Rocket into space. The mission, which was supposed to bring supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) was at that point standard, as it had survived two previous missions without a hitch. But the rocket exploded and caused US$15 million worth of damages to the launch pad alone. Now, the spaceflight company is ready to relaunch Antares.
According to Space.Com, the last launch of the Antares Rocket was on October 28, 2014. After a few seconds from liftoff, the unmanned rocket exploded, which was meant to carry 5,000 pounds of food, scientific experiment supplies, and other such cargo. It was the third mission in private company Orbital ATK's US$1.9 billion contracts with NASA.
After the explosion, both NASA and Orbital ATK quickly launched investigations to see what wrong with what was supposed to be standard flight. Soon after, The Verge notes that Orbital likened the incident to one of the main engines on Antares. Then, the rocket was being propelled by two AJ26 engines, which were Soviet rocket engines that were originally built in 1960 and refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne, an American manufacturer.
Aerojet, like Orbital, reasoned the explosion happened within Antares' turbo pump but reasoned that debris from elsewhere in the rocket caused it. Meanwhile, Orbital claimed that the problem could be traced from its manufacturing. In the end, Aerojet paid Orbital US$50 million in damages. NASA agreed that the incident was caused by an explosion in the turbo pump, but could not assess whether it was due to debris or manufacturing problems.
NASA, Orbital, and the state or Virginia spent over a year repairing the damaged launch pads. Meanwhile, Orbital also worked on replacing the rocket, which meant pairing up the complicated interfaces of an engine with the core of the rocker, in what is essentially a redesign of the rocket's inner workings. In May, the repaired Antares made its way back to the launchpad.
To test the rocket, Orbital oversaw a static fire - a 30-second test for the engines, while the Antares itself was constrained. Orbital confirmed that everything went well. After that, it was simply a matter of scheduling a launch day, which is now scheduled for October 16, 8:03pm ET.
The launch of the Antares is scheduled in a few hours and will scarily determine whether or not the last two years of Orbit's work have been worth it. Those first few seconds, which will hopefully drag onto minutes, will prove whether or not the work, hours and money spent to repair the rocket were worth the trouble. Nevertheless, the spaceflight company remains optimistic.
The treated Antares Rocket will take flight on Sunday, in order to provide the ISS with necessary cargo. The mission is part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services 1 program. "It's going to be home again," Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager of the Advanced Programs Division at Orbital ATK, said about the mission.
If the mission goes well, it will solidify Orbit's name in the space launch industry. Not only will it put faith in the company again, but it could open up some very vital and significant opportunities. After all, its contract with NASA will expire in 2018.
