More on Atlas 5
If schedules hold, the first EELV booster to get off the ground will be the Atlas 5 carrying a Eutelsat communications satellite on a commercial mission.
Marketed by International Launch Services, company spokeswoman Fran Slimmer said Tuesday the first launch of the Atlas 5 from complex 41 is expected in late June or early July.
However, sources tell SPACE.com the launch is being targeted for July 8, precisely one week before Boeing's Delta 4 has the Eastern Range booked for a July 15 launch, which will also feature a Eutelsat communications satellite as the cargo.
During the week of March 11, a fully stacked Atlas 5 was rolled out to the former Titan 4 pad and during the next five days successfully completed a full launch dress rehearsal that tested the entire countdown procedure, including fueling the rocket with its propellant load, but stopped short of actually firing the Russian-built main engines.
Officials said they were ecstatic about the test results, as well as the fact that the test took place only a couple of weeks later than was planned on the original schedule first conceived some five years ago.
"This is the best part of the program where you see all the hardware and software come together and you can make real progress," Karas said. "We're working hard, but you're only good as your next launch."
The 20-story tall booster that will be used on the first flight is one of seven different configurations now envisioned and can carry almost 11,000 pounds (5,000 kilograms) into an orbit high over Earth's equator. More powerful versions are the same height, but can carry nearly double the mass.
The new booster differs from all previous Atlas rockets in several key ways.
First, the Atlas 5 first stage incorporates a rigid structure that can bear its own weight, a far cry from the original Atlas that featured almost a paper-thin aluminum skin, which had to remain pressurized like a balloon -- even when empty of propellant -- in order not to buckle from its own mass.
Another noticeable difference is that the Atlas 5 will be assembled in a Vertical Integration Facility, fully checked out for launch and then rolled out to the launch pad some 11 hours before liftoff -- the short journey taking about a half-hour. In contrast, the Atlas 2 must be assembled and checked out stage by stage on its launch pad -- a process that can take several weeks to complete.
Once the Atlas 5 rocket rolls to the pad on launch day, electrical, air conditioning and propellant feed lines will automatically connect from the ground to the base of the booster's launch platform so the Atlas 5 can be fueled for flight - another innovation that makes it easier to launch.
One more interesting feature is that all of the rocket's major avionics and control systems are easily accessible by removing a panel located on the Atlas 5's exterior, near the base of the first stage. Plug and play components in the open replace the more cramped work conditions found inside compartments of the Atlas 2.
This effort to streamline launch operations reduces the number of people needed to prepare the rocket for flight, which saves money.
"If anything, we've taken a system and made it more simple," Karas said.
More on Delta 4
Meanwhile, at Cape Canaveral's complex 37 -- originally an Apollo Saturn 1 and 1B launch site -- Boeing officials are planning to roll their first flight vehicle out to the razed and re-built launch pad by the end of March.
The flight hardware is already at the Cape, delivered to the launch site from Alabama by water using the company's Delta Mariner, a cargo sailing ship specially designed to handle the complex needs of a rocket, yet capable of navigating the shallowest of rivers and the deepest oceans.
Once the Delta 4 is at the pad the Boeing team will conduct several countdown dress rehearsals, exercises similar to those just completed by the Atlas 5 team. The big difference, however, is that once the first Delta 4 moves to the pad it will stay there until it is actually launched on July 15, which is the current target date.
What's more, Boeing officials plan to end one of their tests about six weeks before launch by igniting the Rocketdyne RS-68 first stage engine for a few seconds in what promises to generate an impressive display of fire, smoke and sound.
"Anticipation of Delta 4's first flight by our Delta team and our company is really building up. So much has gone into introducing this new launch service," said Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva.
The 20-story tall booster to be flown on the maiden launch is among five models Boeing is offering. This version can carry about 12,890 pounds (5,845 kilograms) to a high orbit over Earth's equator. Other versions stretch to 23 stories and can lift more than twice the weight.
Boeing innovations that officials say will help them compete in the commercial launch market begin at its Decatur, Ala., factory, where the first stage core boosters can be built at a rate of 40 per year thanks to an assembly line process that is similar to the way cars are manufactured.
Adding to the high-tech nature of the rocket itself is the way it's welded together, using a process rarely used in industry called Friction Stir Welding, said Villanueva.
"This is an advanced welding process that enables Boeing to do such work as joining the skin sections of both the Delta 4 liquid oxygen and fuel tanks," Villanueva said. "This process increases weld strength by as much 50 percent and at a lower cost than traditional welding methods."
After arriving at the Cape, newly delivered Delta 4 first and second stages will be assembled and checked out for flight in Boeing's new Horizontal Integration Facility and then moved to the pad about one week to 10 days before launch. The satellite cargo will be installed atop the rocket a few days before launch.
Compare that to the Delta 2, which needs about a month to be assembled on the launch pad and checked out for flight.
"With new systems, processes and technology across the board, the Boeing Delta 4 will enable rockets to be produced, processed and launched with increased efficiency, safety, reliability, and customer value," Villanueva said.
By taking most of the pre-launch work away from the pad, Boeing and Lockheed Martin mission managers will begin reflecting the way its competitors -- especially those in Russia and Europe -- prepare missions for launch. Eventually the new methods will allow greater flexibility in scheduling and executing launches.
Officials hope the new way of doing business will be vastly improved over the old way, which is not unlike towing a 747 airliner to the end of the runway, and then servicing it with food, fuel and passengers before starting the engines and taking off - all the time preventing other planes from using the runway to begin or end their flights.
advertisement
