Each of the rockets satellite payloads were built by a handful of students and space cadets -- low on money but high on technology, and the can-do spirit of the early Space Age. They are a group of next-generation space researchers for whom the cobbled together OSP is their only ticket to orbit.
Why? Its all about the ticket price of the rocket ride.
"This is about low-cost boost to space," according to Air Force Lt. Lou Marina, the OSP Deputy Project Manager. The Air Force, like NASA and other U.S. government agencies, has research projects of its own that need a space flight for testing and compiling data.
For the military, most of these experiments have some form of defense-related applications. Some are created inside the Air Force or Pentagon laboratories. Others come from the university community. But most of these researchers scant budget dollars go into the research, leaving little for the cost of the launch.
For these small satellites, the costs of the available commercial rockets -- boosters like Orbital Sciences Taurus and Pegasus and Lockheed Martins Athena -- start around $15 million per rocket. Few universities, even those with sponsored military research projects, can afford that fee. And the list of Air Force experiments in its own Space Test Program (STP) often go begging for the launch cost, which sometimes means prototype satellites must compete with other budget priorities.
And since the Taurus and Pegasus were designed for payloads over 1,000 to 2,000 pounds in size, the smaller satellites, each weighing under a hundred pounds or less, would need to hitch a ride as a secondary payload.
The result sometimes means the band of student researchers get left at the launch pad, waiting for their project to get bundled into somebody elses rocket. For the militarys STP, the launcher of choice is often the space shuttle. But shuttle rides are increasingly hard to come by.
In 1997, the Air Force sought a way for industry to create a lower cost launch for the military researcher without competing against existing, commercially available launch vehicles. The result was the OSP.
In September 1997 the USAF awarded a $206 million contract to Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. to develop and launch a new rocket made up of segments of scrapped Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) mated with other parts from the winged Pegasus XL boosters.
Under the terms of the arms control agreements signed by the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, surplus missile components retired by the treaties can be used to orbit spacecraft. Russia has adapted some of its ballistic missiles into a commercially available small satellite launcher called Rokot. For the U.S., the OSP is the first orbital vehicle developed from the abandoned missiles. It uses parts of some of the 450 Minuteman 2 missiles scrapped under the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START).
Under the contract, Orbital can arrange as many stages and parts as needed to create several different launcher configurations.
"This allows us to launch as little as 750 pounds," Lt. Marina explained to space.com. "The desired location is a 400 nautical mile sun-synchronous target orbit for many of these researchers."
That orbit, where the path of the satellite is illuminated by the sun and passes over most of the worlds oceans and land masses, is most often accessed by U.S. rockets today from the militarys oceanside spaceport at Vandenberg Air Base along the California coast.
Marina said that other flights of the OSP-assembled rockets could be launched from Cape Canaveral. Rockets launched there get a boost from the Earths rotation by flying easterly in the same direction. "That would give us a bit more payload capability with the same configuration," Marina explained.
The cost of the first OSP mission -- crammed full of student-built satellites and experiments aboard a dispenser also designed by students -- will be around $22 million, which will include the OSP development costs up to this point.
"We have one more launch scheduled later this year," Marina said, with the military Mightysat research satellite as the prime payload.
The second and additional launches will come in around $12 million per flight.
And while the rocket parts may be old, there will be new technology derived from the flights. Marina said that the guidance system adapted from the Pegasus will be a more advanced version, getting a tryout without risking a commercial customers payload. And the OSP rocket will use a new kind of adapter that connects the satellite canisters to the top of the rocket stage.
That system, precursor of a future commercial product, will dampen out the vibrations from the old missiles ride and avoid a jarring trip into space that could damage the satellites. Marina said that it is a more extensive device than has been tested before.
"All of this [technology] is proving our rocket to space," he said. "Its a soft ride for satellites."
Orbitals contract covers up to 24 launches in the project.
"Basically we can launch as many of these small payloads as we can handle," Marina said. And the satellites can include NASA projects or even weather bureau experiment platforms. "We can fly anybody but a commercial customer."
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