Andrew Yee
February 27th 06, 08:39 PM
Public Affairs
Air Force Research Laboratory
Kirtland AFB, New Mexico
Contact: Michael P. Kleiman
Phone: 505-846-4704
February 16, 2006
VS Release No. 06-07
Looking for responsive, low-cost space lift
Space Vehicles Directorate's Launch Vehicle Technology program evaluates
innovative, low-cost, launch vehicle concepts to propel military space
assets into orbit to support the warfighter
An office comprised of two personnel seeks to save the Air Force millions
of dollars in lift off costs by demonstrating innovative launch vehicle
concepts to perform the critical, initial portion of spaceflight.
Located at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., the Air Force Research
Laboratory's (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate's Launch Vehicle Technology
(LVT) program focuses on advancing multiple methods of low-cost rocket
design, development, and production. In addition, the project investigates
streamlining mobilization and launch procedures to provide greater launch
responsiveness at no loss in reliability.
"Our program's primary focus is developing low cost, responsive launch
vehicle technologies," said Capt. Aaron Simons, Launch Vehicle Technology
program manager, Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research
Laboratory. "Low-cost, responsive rockets will provide the warfighter
greater access to space -- the ultimate high ground."
Expenditures associated with a single, standard launch can cost up to
hundreds of millions of dollars. Expenditures associated with small launch
vehicles typically top $20 million, but like the Bob Dylan song The Times
They Are A-Changin, the military space industry's pendulum has swung
towards developing smaller, cheaper, and more responsive launch systems,
with a projected cost of about one third of today's lift off price tag.
AFRL proactively prepared for this shift in thinking over 10 years ago by
initiating the LVT program.
Building a launch vehicle at a fraction of the cost served as the
project's original vision, and the commitment to achieving it remains
firm. The LVT team has fueled many efforts leading toward simpler,
lower-cost rockets. Over a decade ago, the LVT project initiated
Microcosm's ScorpiusŪ minimum cost design, small launch vehicle program.
This and other technology efforts have resulted in reduced-cost
propellants such as liquid oxygen/methane and liquid oxygen/liquid natural
gas; safer propellants including hybrid rockets (solid fuel/liquid or
gaseous oxidizer); and lighter, cheaper systems, subsystems, and
components such as all composite ablative thrust chambers, aluminum and
castable injectors, as well as composite propellant tanks. The LVT program
has focused on small launch vehicles for two significant reasons. First,
satellites are becoming smaller, lighter, and cheaper, and with greater
capabilities than ever before. Second, smaller launch vehicle systems can
be produced at lower development costs.
Currently, the LVT team is working with three separate companies to assess
economical lift off technologies: Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion Co.,
Casper, Wyo.; Microcosm Inc., El Segundo, Calif.; and KT Engineering
(KTE), Huntsville, Ala.
Almost one year ago, the Air Force selected Wickman Spacecraft &
Propulsion Co. for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program
Phase I award, which provides federal monies for an American-owned,
independently-operated, for-profit venture comprised of 500 employees or
less, for research into the value of the specific technology for a
12-month period. The SBIR program also consists of two additional steps.
In Phase II, further funding is awarded for the technology's development,
and during Phase III, government financing ceases with the
commercialization of the new apparatus. At this final point in the SBIR
process, the enterprise underwrites its project's expenses.
Focusing on an innovative, cost-effective propulsion concept, the
Wyoming-based business has tested, for the LVT program, a solid rocket
motor concept with two unique characteristics: a low-cost, containerized
phase stabilized ammonium nitrate (PSAN) solid propellant, which provides
moderate performance at much greater safety; and an altitude compensating
nozzle with individually controlled nozzle throats, which may be throttled
for thrust and thrust vector control.
For the past nine years, Microcosm Inc. has supported the LVT team's quest
for low-cost, lift off technology with their ScorpiusŪ project. Subsidized
through a SBIR Phase II award, the California company has successfully
completed two separate launches of suborbital vehicles from White Sands
Missile Range, N.M., employing the ScorpiusŪ structure. The first involved
the SR-S, an 18-inch in diameter rocket powered by a single 5,000-pound
thrust engine, in January 1999, and the second featured the SR-XM-1, a
42-inch in width rocket consisting of two 5,000-pound thrust engines in
March 2001.
A third, the SR-M, comprised by a single engine, capable of 20,000 pounds
of thrust, is anticipated to also be launched from White Sands Missile
Range in early 2007. The SR-M will be essentially a single pod of a
multi-pod design (a core with six surrounding pods) called Sprite, which
will be capable of placing small satellites in orbit.
With a low cost launch concept different than the other two entities, KTE
has embarked on progressive approaches to spacecraft design to reduce lift
off expenses. Their concept is to build a launch vehicle using commercial
industry, commercial manufacturing, and commercial business practices in
economies of scale, rather than aerospace industry procedures. This
process promises to dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing.
Assisted by SBIR Phase II funding during the last three years, the LVT's
third designer for economical launches has collaborated on their
experiments with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
"The launch vehicle is the workhorse in getting satellites into space."
said Capt. Simons. "By making rockets smaller, cheaper, and more
responsive, the Air Force will free up dollars that could be used to
better support the warfighter."
Sounds like an idea whose time is soon to be launched courtesy of the LVT
program.
IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://www.vs.afrl.af.mil/News/Images/06-07.jpg (21KB)]
SR-XM-1 lift offs from White Sands Missile Range in March 2001. The
low-cost launch vehicle, part of Microcosm Inc.'s Scorpius(R) project,
consisted of a 42-inch in width rocket with two 5,000-pound thrust
engines. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Air Force Research Laboratory
Kirtland AFB, New Mexico
Contact: Michael P. Kleiman
Phone: 505-846-4704
February 16, 2006
VS Release No. 06-07
Looking for responsive, low-cost space lift
Space Vehicles Directorate's Launch Vehicle Technology program evaluates
innovative, low-cost, launch vehicle concepts to propel military space
assets into orbit to support the warfighter
An office comprised of two personnel seeks to save the Air Force millions
of dollars in lift off costs by demonstrating innovative launch vehicle
concepts to perform the critical, initial portion of spaceflight.
Located at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., the Air Force Research
Laboratory's (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate's Launch Vehicle Technology
(LVT) program focuses on advancing multiple methods of low-cost rocket
design, development, and production. In addition, the project investigates
streamlining mobilization and launch procedures to provide greater launch
responsiveness at no loss in reliability.
"Our program's primary focus is developing low cost, responsive launch
vehicle technologies," said Capt. Aaron Simons, Launch Vehicle Technology
program manager, Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research
Laboratory. "Low-cost, responsive rockets will provide the warfighter
greater access to space -- the ultimate high ground."
Expenditures associated with a single, standard launch can cost up to
hundreds of millions of dollars. Expenditures associated with small launch
vehicles typically top $20 million, but like the Bob Dylan song The Times
They Are A-Changin, the military space industry's pendulum has swung
towards developing smaller, cheaper, and more responsive launch systems,
with a projected cost of about one third of today's lift off price tag.
AFRL proactively prepared for this shift in thinking over 10 years ago by
initiating the LVT program.
Building a launch vehicle at a fraction of the cost served as the
project's original vision, and the commitment to achieving it remains
firm. The LVT team has fueled many efforts leading toward simpler,
lower-cost rockets. Over a decade ago, the LVT project initiated
Microcosm's ScorpiusŪ minimum cost design, small launch vehicle program.
This and other technology efforts have resulted in reduced-cost
propellants such as liquid oxygen/methane and liquid oxygen/liquid natural
gas; safer propellants including hybrid rockets (solid fuel/liquid or
gaseous oxidizer); and lighter, cheaper systems, subsystems, and
components such as all composite ablative thrust chambers, aluminum and
castable injectors, as well as composite propellant tanks. The LVT program
has focused on small launch vehicles for two significant reasons. First,
satellites are becoming smaller, lighter, and cheaper, and with greater
capabilities than ever before. Second, smaller launch vehicle systems can
be produced at lower development costs.
Currently, the LVT team is working with three separate companies to assess
economical lift off technologies: Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion Co.,
Casper, Wyo.; Microcosm Inc., El Segundo, Calif.; and KT Engineering
(KTE), Huntsville, Ala.
Almost one year ago, the Air Force selected Wickman Spacecraft &
Propulsion Co. for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program
Phase I award, which provides federal monies for an American-owned,
independently-operated, for-profit venture comprised of 500 employees or
less, for research into the value of the specific technology for a
12-month period. The SBIR program also consists of two additional steps.
In Phase II, further funding is awarded for the technology's development,
and during Phase III, government financing ceases with the
commercialization of the new apparatus. At this final point in the SBIR
process, the enterprise underwrites its project's expenses.
Focusing on an innovative, cost-effective propulsion concept, the
Wyoming-based business has tested, for the LVT program, a solid rocket
motor concept with two unique characteristics: a low-cost, containerized
phase stabilized ammonium nitrate (PSAN) solid propellant, which provides
moderate performance at much greater safety; and an altitude compensating
nozzle with individually controlled nozzle throats, which may be throttled
for thrust and thrust vector control.
For the past nine years, Microcosm Inc. has supported the LVT team's quest
for low-cost, lift off technology with their ScorpiusŪ project. Subsidized
through a SBIR Phase II award, the California company has successfully
completed two separate launches of suborbital vehicles from White Sands
Missile Range, N.M., employing the ScorpiusŪ structure. The first involved
the SR-S, an 18-inch in diameter rocket powered by a single 5,000-pound
thrust engine, in January 1999, and the second featured the SR-XM-1, a
42-inch in width rocket consisting of two 5,000-pound thrust engines in
March 2001.
A third, the SR-M, comprised by a single engine, capable of 20,000 pounds
of thrust, is anticipated to also be launched from White Sands Missile
Range in early 2007. The SR-M will be essentially a single pod of a
multi-pod design (a core with six surrounding pods) called Sprite, which
will be capable of placing small satellites in orbit.
With a low cost launch concept different than the other two entities, KTE
has embarked on progressive approaches to spacecraft design to reduce lift
off expenses. Their concept is to build a launch vehicle using commercial
industry, commercial manufacturing, and commercial business practices in
economies of scale, rather than aerospace industry procedures. This
process promises to dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing.
Assisted by SBIR Phase II funding during the last three years, the LVT's
third designer for economical launches has collaborated on their
experiments with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
"The launch vehicle is the workhorse in getting satellites into space."
said Capt. Simons. "By making rockets smaller, cheaper, and more
responsive, the Air Force will free up dollars that could be used to
better support the warfighter."
Sounds like an idea whose time is soon to be launched courtesy of the LVT
program.
IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://www.vs.afrl.af.mil/News/Images/06-07.jpg (21KB)]
SR-XM-1 lift offs from White Sands Missile Range in March 2001. The
low-cost launch vehicle, part of Microcosm Inc.'s Scorpius(R) project,
consisted of a 42-inch in width rocket with two 5,000-pound thrust
engines. (U.S. Air Force photo)