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Ongoing Launch Vehicle Innovation at United Launch Alliance IEEE 2010-1020 Bernard F. Kutter, Frank Zegler, Jon Barr, Mari Gravlee, Jake Szatkowski, Jeff Patton, Scott Ward United Launch Alliance 9100 E. Mineral Circle Denver, Co 80127 303-269-5538 [email protected] Abstract —General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas ACRONYMS revolutionized global space access with the introduction of their respective commercial Atlas I and Delta II rockets. ACES Advanced Common Evolved Stage 12Developed with support from the Air Force as an anchor CBC Common Booster Core tenant, the commercial Atlas and Delta rockets evolved from CCAFS Cape Canaveral Air Force Station their legacy ancestors. Through continuous innovation, these CFM Cryogenic Fluid Management early commercial vehicles evolved to the current Atlas V CRYOTE Cryogenic Orbital Testbed and Delta IV launch vehicles that provide the backbone of DCSS Delta Cryogenic Second Stage America’s national security and science space access. DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Through numerous acquisitions and mergers, both of these EDS Emergency Detection System world class rocket families are now part of United Launch EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Alliance (ULA). ESPA EELV Secondary Payload Adapter FTINU Fault Tolerant Inertial Navigation Unit The long history of innovation that resulted in these vehicles GH2 Gaseous Hydrogen continues today at ULA, ensuring that the Atlas and Delta GO2 Gaseous Oxygen families will continue to provide reliable, cost-effective GRC Glenn Research Center space transportation for decades to come. Ongoing GSO Geosynchronous Orbit development of common manufacturing and processing, an GTO Geostationary Transfer Orbit improved RS-68A, and GPS metric tracking will provide HLV Heavy Lift Vehicle enhanced customer support in the next few years. Currently ILS Initial Launch Capability in preliminary development, the Advanced Common IOC Initial Operational Capability Evolved Stage (ACES) and human rating will substantially Isp Specific Impulse enhance ULA’s ability to support its customer needs. With IVF Integrated Vehicle Fluids conceptual development of partial booster reuse, orbital LEO Low Earth Orbit refueling, long-duration stages, and long-duration cryogenic LH2 Liquid Hydrogen propulsion stages, ULA is setting the stage to provide LO2 Liquid Oxygen revolutionary space transportation in the years ahead. MEO Medium Earth Orbit MLI Multi Layer Insulation TABLE OF CONTENTS MLP Mobile Launch Platform MRS Minimum Residual Shutdown ACRONYMS.......................................................................1 NRO National Reconnaissance Office 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................2 OSP Orbital Space Plane 2. RS68A HEAVY UPGRADE PROGRAM ..............................3 PLF Payload Fairing 3. COMMON DELTA BOOSTER CORE ..................................3 PRA Probablistic Risk Assesment 4. ATLAS V AND DELTA IV HUMAN RATING ......................4 RCS Reaction control system 5. COMMON CENTAUR .........................................................5 SRM Solid Rocket Motor 6. ENHANCED LAUNCH SERVICE CAPABILITIES .................6 ULA United Launch Alliance 7. ADVANCED COMMON EVOLVED STAGE (ACES)..........11 VAFB Vandenberg Air Force Base 8. FUTURE SPACE TRANSPORTATION ................................12 VIF Vertical Integration Facility 9. SUMMARY...................................................................12 REFERENCES ......................................................................12 BIOGRAPHY ........................................................................13 1 978-1-4244-3888-4/10/$25.00 ©2010 IEEE 2 IEEEAC paper#1020, Version 6, Updated 2010:01:05 1 com bust of the late 1990s, the commercial communication 1. INTRODUCTION market never materialized. ULA was formed to enable the continuation of assured access to space even under the fiscal United Launch Alliance (ULA) was formed to streamline reality of a severely reduced launch market. America’s space access, reducing costs while encouraging innovation through combining the talent of the people In the first three years of existence, ULA has consolidated supporting Atlas and Delta. ULA by charter is a launch management and engineering in Denver, CO (Figure 2). services company, providing equal space access to all users. Through co-location of the engineering disciplines, ULA ULA’s rockets encompass the Delta II, Atlas V, and Delta encourages cross pollination of methodologies and the use IV families spanning the medium to heavy lift payload of common tools and process. With the recent requirements. The continuous evolution (Figure 1) of Atlas implementation of a combined Atlas V and Delta IV and Delta has resulted in very reliable launchers. sustainment contract, the Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) are realizing further savings The Atlas V and Delta IV versions were developed with by eliminating multiple contracts and rules. Launch support participation from the U.S. Department of Defense in the consolidation is well underway with common crews form of $500M of funding. Lockheed Martin and Boeing supporting Atlas and Delta operations at Cape Canaveral Air funded the majority of the development, seeking to service Force Station (CCAFS) and Vandenberg Air Force Base both the national security needs and the anticipated robust (VAFB). ULA’s consolidation continues with the transition commercial communication customer market. With the dot- of Atlas Booster and Centaur final assembly from Denver to Figure 1 – Atlas and Delta have a long and successful history of evolving to meet customer requirements Atlas Next ULAULA FleetFleet CommonCommon BoosterBooster && GSEGSE Generation ConsolidationConsolidation StandardizationStandardization UpperUpper StageStage OptimizationOptimization Phase 2 Phase 3 System PhasePhase PhasePhase 1 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Development Fleet Evolution Delta Figure 2 – ULA’s consolidation of EELV contracts, management, engineering, production, launch operations and components is providing substantial savings and reliability improvements for the customer community 2 Decatur AL, which is expected to be complete by the end of adds a 108% enhanced power level while retaining the 2009. 2010 will see the transition of Atlas booster tank capability to still operate at 102% full power level. The production to Decatur followed in 2011 with Centaur tank minimum power level is also adjusted downward to 55% production. from 57%. Along with these thrust increases the RS-68A also provides increased Specific Impulse (Isp). The Going forward, ULA is investigating further opportunities improved engine performance, along with other launch for consolidation and commonality while balancing the system enhancements, will increase the Delta Heavy Lift desire for assured access to space with the customer mandate Vehicle (HLV) Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO) capability by to reduce costs. Launch reliability will always be ULA’s more than 1,000 lbs. number one priority as represented in the successful flights of ULA’s 37 missions as of December 2009 (Figure 3). The development test program for the RS-68A (Figure 4), consisting of 28 starts and 3,985 seconds of hot fire time, 100% Mission Success was completed in October 2009. The development testing NROL-21 - 12/14/06 - Delta II has successfully demonstrated the improved engine thrust THEMIS - 2/17/07 - Delta II and ISP. As of November 2009, the program is transitioning STP-1 - 3/8/07 - Atlas V to certification testing with expected completion in the COSMO-1 - 6/7/07 - Delta II second quarter of 2010. First flight of a Delta IV HLV with NROL-30 - 6/15/07 - Atlas V the RS-68A is scheduled for 2011. Phoenix - 8/4/07 - Delta II Worldview-1 - 9/18/07 - Delta II Dawn - 9/27/07 - Delta II WGS-1 - 10/10/07 - Atlas V GPS IIR-17 - 10/17/07 - Delta II DSP-23 - 11/10/07 - Delta IV COSMO-2 - 12/8/07 - Delta II NROL-24 - 12/10/07 - Atlas V GPS IIR-18 - 12/20/07 - Delta II NROL-28 - 3/13/08 - Atlas V GPS IIR-19 - 3/15/08 - Delta II ICO G1 - 4/14/08 - Atlas V GLAST - 6/11/08 - Delta II OSTM - 6/20/08 - Delta II GeoEye - 9/6/08 - Delta II COSMO-3 - 10/24/08 - Delta II NROL-26 - 1/17/09 - Delta IV NOAA-N' - 2/6/09 - Delta II Kepler - 3/6/09 - Delta II Figure 4 – RS68A undergoing hot fire testing at NASA GPS IIR-20 - 3/24/09 - Delta II Stennis Space Center (Credit: Pratt and Whitney WGS-2 - 4/3/09 - Atlas V STSS-ATRR - 5/5/09 - Delta II Rocketdyne) LRO/LCROSS - 6/18/09 - Atlas V GOES-O - 6/27/09 - Delta IV 3. COMMON DELTA BOOSTER CORE GPS IIR-21 - 8/17/09 - Delta II PAN - 9/8/09 - Atlas V During Delta IV development, Evolved Expendable Launch STSS Demo - 9/25/09 - Delta II Vehicle (EELV) performance specifications drove the team Worldview-2 - 10/8/09 - Delta II to customize the common booster core (CBC) structure DMSP-18 - 10/18/09 - Atlas V designs for the different vehicle configurations (Medium, Intelsat-14 - 11/23/09 - Atlas V Medium+, HLV). The lightest weight booster structure is WGS-3 - 12/5/09 - Delta IV WISE - 12/14/2009 - Delta II used on the Medium. The Medium+ configurations, requiring more strength, incorporate a somewhat heavier National Security - 18 structure and attachment fittings for two or four solid rocket NASA/Civil – 10 motors (SRMs). The HLV booster core is uniquely Commercial - 9 configured to carry two strap-on liquid boosters, and the Figure 3 – ULA has successfully flown 37 missions since strap-on boosters themselves incorporate a unique lighter its inception in
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