Managers Recap Commercial Rocket’s Successful Demo Flight
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During a post-launch press briefing on NASA Television and nasa.gov, managers from NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation discuss the successful demonstration flight of the Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Flight Facility and what lies ahead for the cargo delivery system. Antares is scheduled to launch a Cygnus spacecraft to orbit this summer that will transport cargo to the International Space Station.
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Managers Recap Commercial Rocket’s Successful Demo Flight
11 Comments
11 Comments
Congratulations, NASA.
gratz
Looks like SpaceX has some competition.
I guess you mean orbital.
That’s what we need! Competition moves technology and costs forward faster than pretty much everything short of war.
I would like a better explanation regarding the contract prices for orbital and spacex. Cygnus is 2000/2700kg x 8=1.9B. Dragon is 6600kg(50% pressurized) x 12=1.6B. Why is it a competition if orbital is much more expensive with lesser capability and yet NASA says that the pricing differs because cygnus can carry more cargo?
It’s not just about payload mass to orbit, it’s also about volume. The Cygnus spacecraft has 18.5 cubic meters of pressurized volume while Dragon has only 10. Right now, Falcon 9/Dragon are not carrying their full payload mass uplift capacity anyway since most payloads are constricted by volume more than by payload uplift capacity. That, by the way, was the Space Shuttles biggest advantage, having both a huge pressurized and unpressurized payload volume and cargo mass uplift capacity.
I understand that volume is another metric. But higher volume don’t justify higher costs. Falcon 9 can launch close to Space Shuttle class volumes with the payload fairing.
I was impressed they did it in 2 stages.
No, no F9 can’t. The Dragon spacecraft is constrained by the internal volume of it’s capsule (10m^3) as well as the “trunk” space in the unpressurized section. The Shuttle orbiters were constrained only by the size of the huge MPLM module (31m^3) and the unpressurized carrier that fit in the huge 15 x 4.6 m payload bay. In addition to that, it had a 17 tonne to ISS cargo capacity and carry a seven person crew on top of that. Sorry, but F9/Dragon ain’t beating that.
You’ll have been with good friends. great updates, I gassed understand thanks for letting know.