LADEE: A Flight of Firsts (Part 3) Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport

The first lunar flight from NASA Wallops/MARS

The Minotaur V rocket that will be carrying the LADEE spacecraft will be launching from a complex on the eastern shore of Virginia that is no stranger to rocketry activity. The Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport is located adjacent to, and operated in conjunction with, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, VA, a complex that has been launching rockets for aeronautical research since 1945 when it was established by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor to NASA. Some sources estimate that this facility has conducted over 16,000 launches since its opening almost 70 years ago, but this will be the first with a lunar target.

Many flights have left Wallops/MARS aiming to place payloads into Earth orbit, and in a few weeks a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will be attempted there, but NASA Wallops specializes in sub-orbital science missions that never reach Earth orbit. Those rockets are called "sounding rockets." The flights carry scientific instruments up to 350 miles above the Earth, outside the atmosphere where they can measure things like solar radiation, the Earth’s magnetic fields, astronomy observations, and a whole host of other research topics. The missions are very short duration and the instruments reenter the atmosphere to sometimes burn up and sometimes to be recovered by parachute, but the short duration is offset by the relatively low cost.

The MARS complex has been slowly building up their capabilities over the years from suborbital, to Earth orbit, and soon lunar orbit. While it’s unlikely that they will ever conduct the large launches that we see out of Kennedy Space Center and Vandenberg AFB, Wallops and MARS are setting themselves up as the ideal launch site for lightweight orbital payload shots to the ISS and for corporations looking to put satellites into orbit. Given the trend in the miniaturization of electronics it looks like the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport is due to become a key player in the commercial launch world.

Tomorrow's Topic:  LADEE's Launch Profile and "Yo-yo de-spin"
Later this week: Where and When YOU might see LADEE launch!

LADEE: A Flight of Firsts (Part 2) The Minotaur V

The first flight of the Orbital Sciences Minotaur V
 
    The LADEE mission will be riding its way to space aboard a rocket called the Minotaur V, the fifth in a series of rockets that increases its lofting capability with each successive generation. The fifth generation also happens to be a five-stage rocket, meaning five rocket segments that fire successively. When each stage is done firing it is detached from the rocket and left to burn up in the atmosphere. Staging allows the rocket to dump the dead weight and maintain efficiency as it reaches higher altitudes. 

   The Minotaur family of rockets have come into existence as a result of the US military's decommissioning of Minuteman and Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), once in place as our nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union. The Orbital Sciences corporation was contracted by the US Air Force to convert these missiles into orbital and sub-orbital launchers. They have been used to put satellites into orbit and as targets for anti-ballistic missile tests during which the Air Force practices destroying an incoming, hostile missile. The first three stages of these rockets use solid propellants which make them very safe to work with, stable for long-term storage, and reliable when fired. In fact, the Minotaur family has a 100% success rate to date.
    This launch is the first time that the five-stage configuration will be employed for this family of rockets. To be completely honest, this is not a high-risk "first" because the two commercially developed upper stages have been flow successfully before, however, that's no guarantee that it will be smooth sailing. Each rocket stage has its own computer that controls its ignition and operations and if these computers do not work together properly the vehicle could very well destroy itself, though that is a very unlikely scenario for the Minotaur V. Here's wishing the best of luck to the Orbital Sciences team!

For more detailed information about the Minotaur V rocket, visit Orbital Sciences' fact sheet.


Tomorrow's Topic: Look out Kennedy Space Center, the Mid Atlantic Spaceport is getting busy!