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Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Oct 11, 2006 Alliant Techsystems recently completed a successful on-pad assembly, or pathfinder operation, of an ATK-designed launch vehicle, the ALV. This significant milestone keeps the company on schedule to fly its first mission -- designated ALV X-1 -- in 2007. Next year's ALV X-1 flight is part of ATK's plan to develop a low-cost launch vehicle for the operational responsive space (ORS) market. Possible ORS programs include the delivery of small payloads to low-earth orbit in support of DOD missions, NASA scientific missions, and commercial and university satellite programs. "The completion of our pathfinder operation builds on last year's successful sounding rocket flight test and brings us one step closer to realizing our goal of developing an affordable launch vehicle that supports numerous military, scientific and commercial missions," said Charlie Precourt, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, ATK Launch Systems Group. "By incorporating off-the-shelf components and technologies into the program and minimizing ground support requirements, we believe ATK can offer our customers a reliable and low life-cycle cost launch vehicle." During its inaugural flight, the ALV will carry a hypersonic boundary layer transition experiment (Hy-BoLT) payload sponsored by NASA's Hypersonics Project within the Fundamental Aeronautics Program. A secondary payload consisting of a suborbital aerodynamic re-entry experiment (SOAREX) is being developed by NASA Ames. The inaugural flight of the ALV will be launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility. Related Links ATK Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
NASA Engineer Dan Dumbacher Helps Lead Development Of Next-Gen Launch Vehicles
Huntsville AL (SPX) Oct 11, 2006While growing up in Indianapolis, NASA senior engineer Dan Dumbacher never missed a chance to watch a space launch on television. Today, he is doing more than just watching spacecraft lift off - he's helping build the next generation of launch vehicles. These vehicles will play an integral part in NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, returning humans to the moon and traveling to Mars and beyond.
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