Next Wallops mission to International Space Station set for September – Delmarva Daily Times

Carol Vaughn, cvaughn@delmarvanow.com Published 5:56 p.m. ET June 12, 2017 | Updated 2 hours ago

Wallops executives give an update concerning Antares and Cygnus missions. Produced by Ralph Musthaler

Dan Givens, Anteres Field Site Manager, speaks to the media during a press event at the Horizontal Integration Facility on Wallops Island on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Photo: Staff photo by Ralph Musthaler)Buy Photo

Orbital ATK's next cargo supply mission to the International Space Station, OA-8, is set to launch from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in September, officials said at a briefing thereMonday.

Another mission, OA-9, is slated for later this year, likely in November.

Orbital ATK currently has contracts with NASA for a total of 10 cargo missions, all of which are set to be launched from Wallops.

"Right now, all the missions we have on the schedule are intended to go on the Antares (rocket) and go out of the Wallops Flight Facility," said Frank Culbertson, Orbital ATK Space Systems Group president.

Orbital ATK's most recent cargo supply mission, OA-7, was launched from Florida in April.

The Wallops facility is one of two spaceports in the United States from which the commercial cargo supply missions are launched, along with Cape Canaveral in Florida.

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The date set for the launch of the OA-8 mission is Sept. 12, but the rocket could be ready for launch earlier than that if NASA needs to bump up the date, said Kurt Eberly, Orbital ATK Antares vice president.

The last mission to the International Space Station launched from Wallops was OA-5 in October 2016.

That mission was the first to the space station launched from Wallops since an Antares rocket exploded shortly after liftoff on Oct. 28, 2014, after amotor malfunction happenedas the spacecraft began to clear the launchpad. After that, Orbital ATK replaced the first-stage engines on the rocket.

Dale Nash, executive director of Virginia Space, speaks to the media in front of a launch pad on Wallops Island on Monday, June 12, 2017.(Photo: Staff photo by Ralph Musthaler)

"Wallops continues to be a neat place where we do a wide variety of things for both commercial and government customers," said Bill Wrobel, NASA Wallops Flight Facility director.

The facility "at any given time (has) about 50 different missions" in the works, ranging from balloon missions to sounding rocket launches, among others.

Wrobel called Orbital ATK "a strong partner with us here for a number of years now," noting the company, in addition to the more widely publicized missions to the International Space Station, also handles the sounding rocket and balloon programs at Wallops.

Wrobel also noted the first small satellite built at Wallops recently was deployed off the International Space Station.

"We look forward to a lot more of these things coming up in the future," Wrobel said of the upcoming cargo mission.

"It is a real pleasure to be back here at Wallops ... It's a great place to be," Culbertson said.

The company is "very much committed to completing our CRS-1 contract," Culbertson said, noting there are four more flights to be completed under that contract.

Additionally, six flights are slated to happen under the CRS-2 contract with the first of those planned for 2019.

A view of the inside of the Horizontal Integration Facility on Wallops Island on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Photo: Staff photo by Ralph Musthaler)

The company in that second phase will be able to carry more cargo on each mission, he said. "That's going to really help ... keep things here at Wallops moving," Culbertson said.

The Horizontal Integration Facility on Wallops Island currently holds two Antares rockets slated for the OA-8 and OA-9 missions.

Orbital's plan is "to build two at a time, basically, and we plan to have them ready in advance of when they are needed," Eberly said.

The rocket for the OA-8 mission is ready for the Cygnus cargo module to be installed, putting it at about the three-week mark from readiness for launch.

"We're at that milestone now, so we'll be ready for September; we'll even be ready a little earlier if they need us in the August time frame," he said.

Data from the last ISS mission launched from Wallops in October the first mission using the Antares' new stage one engines has been analyzed and the verdict is "it was a very clean mission," Eberly said.

The engines have 13 percent higher thrust than the ones formerly used on Antares and they come with 10 seconds of additional specific impulse a measure of how efficiently the propellants are burned.

The improved performance will allow each future mission to carry more cargo the next two missions are each scheduled to carry 3,350 kilograms of cargo and by the OA-11 mission, the goal is to carry 3,500 kilograms.

In addition to the cargo supply missions, the company is hoping Antares will be on track to perform other NASA missions in the future, Eberly said.

Dale Nash, executive director of Virginia Space, said the launch pad for OA-8 should be in launch configuration by the end of July.

"The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport ... is ready to support the upcoming OA-8 mission," said Nash.

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Launch pad O-A, the pad used for the Antares launches, after the last mission in October, "came through that very well," Nash said, adding, "There's always some wear and tear as you come through the mission, but it came through in remarkably good shape."

Among reasons for the good result is that with the new, more powerful engines, the rocket got off the launch pad "very fast the faster it can get off, the less damage you have," Nash said.

Additionally, the spaceport goes through a thorough analysis after each launch, including looking at where the pad was damaged, and "we harden the launch pad."

The spaceport advertises that it can support a 30-day turnaround between launches from both launchpads it operates one for liquid-fueled rockets like Antares and the other for solid-fueled rockets.

"We probably could have done it quicker on the last one," Nash said.

The spaceport is at the point now where it has proven performance under its belt.

Nash mentioned by way of example two successful high-profile missions launched there within days of each other in September 2013.

"We have already proven that we can launch off launchpad A to the International Space Station and then, 12 days later, launch a mission to the moon off launchpad B."

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Next Wallops mission to International Space Station set for September - Delmarva Daily Times