ULA Lays Groundwork for Next-Gen Engine

[Indus Falcon]

ULA Lays Groundwork for Next-Gen Engine
By AARON MEHTA
Jun. 17, 2014 -

An Atlas V evolved expendable launch vehicle carries NASA's Mars Science Laboratory from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 2011. The United Launch Alliance today announced an initiative to replace the RD-180 engine used in the rocket. (George Roberts/US Air Force)

WASHINGTON— The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has signed agreements with “multiple” American firms to help develop a next-generation engine replacement, the company announced Monday.

ULA intends to move quickly on its new engine design. In a press release, the company says it will select a concept and supplier “by the fourth quarter of this year to enable initial launch capability by 2019 of the new system.” A spokeswoman for ULA declined to name the companies involved, citing non-disclosure agreements.

Experts differ on how long a new engine development would take and how much it would cost, but general agreement seems to be that five years is a minimum needed todevelop the engine.

The goal is to develop an American-made replacement for the RD-180 Russian produced engine, which ULA uses on its Atlas V launch vehicle. That RD-180 has become a source of controversy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as an escalating series of sanctions has led to the threat of Russia cutting off the engine supply.

The company has expressed confidence that even if Russia does cut off the RD-180 supply — something both company and Air Force officials have noted does not appear to actually be happening — it could manage by shifting more launches to theDelta IV launch vehicle.

“While the RD-180 has been a remarkable success, we believe now is the right time for American investment in a domestic engine,” ULA President Michael Gass said in a statement announcing the news. “At the same time, given that ULA is the only certified launch provider of our nation’s most important satellites, it is critical that America preserve current capabilities and options while simultaneously pursuing this new engine.”

The statement also notes that the company is exploring how funding would work, including private investment or a public-private partnership. Eric Fanning, Air Force undersecretary, has saidpublic-private partnershipscould be the best way forward.

“It could mean that instead of pursuing a program to build an engine on our own, we invest in private partnerships to sort of launch some competition for an alternate engine,” Fanning said at May’s National Space Symposium. “It could be research and technology to get things started. So there are a range of options even if you decide you want an alternate engine that’s US built.”

ULA Lays Groundwork for Next-Gen Engine | Defense News | defensenews.com

 

[Indus Falcon]

The Air Force Is Still Worried About Its Reliance On Russian Rocket Engines

• BRENDAN MCGARRY,MILITARY.COM

• JUN. 20, 2014,

The U.S. Air Force hasn’t yet decided what to do about its reliance on the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine, the service’s top civilian said.
“There’s no final decisions on any of these matters concerning the RD-180,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said this week during a breakfast with defense reporters in Washington, D.C.

The engine, made by the Russian company NPO Energomash, is employed by the Lockheed Martin Corp.-Boeing Co. joint venture United Launch Alliance LLC as a first-stage engine on the Atlas V rocket as part of the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, which ferries military and spy satellites into space.

Rising tensions between the two countries over Russia’s invasion and subsequent annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region this year have raised questions about American dependence on Russian hardware for national-security programs.

What’s more, a California-based company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX and headed by billionaire Elon Musk, wants to compete for a slice of the military market and in April sued the Air Force to open more of the EELV launches to competition.

Michael Gass, the head of United Launch Alliance, this week said deliveries of the RD-180 engine continue, despite recent threats from Russia that it would stop the supply. Two engines are scheduled for delivery in August and three more in October, Gass said, according to an article by Christian Davenport of The Washington Post. The company also pledged to begin developing a its own replacement engine.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s deputy prime minister, in May tweeted, “Russia is ready to continue deliveries of RD-180 engines to the US only under the guarantee that they won’t be used in the interests of the Pentagon.” He also wrote that Russia “doesn’t plan to continue cooperation” with the U.S. on the International Space Station after 2020 — four years earlier than NASA plans — and that it would deactivate sites of the U.S.-managed GPS system in the country.

The messages were viewed as retaliation against U.S. sanctions. Rogozin, who heads up the country’s defense and space industries, was on a list of Russian officials targeted in March by the White House for economic sanctions in response to Russia’s military action.

Regardless, the Air Force secretary said a recent independent study, known as the Mitchell report after its author, Howard J. Mitchell, a retired Air Force major general, concluded that the U.S. shouldn’t rely so heavily on Russia to launch spacecraft.

The report, a summary of which has been posted on the website, Space Politics pointed out that there were 38 Atlas V missions on the launch manifest, but only 16 RD-180 engines stockpiled in the U.S., and makes a series of recommendations, according to a post on the website by Jeff Foust.

James, the Air Force secretary, said the service is considering expediting delivery of the engines, speeding up the certification process for new entrants to the program such as SpaceX, and, in the long-term, identifying ways to manufacture an engine in the U.S, either by co-producing the existing engine, developing a new engine under a traditional acquisition program or adapting technology already available in the private sector for the program under a public-private partnership, she said.

“These are all options on the table and there’s no final decision yet on which way to go,” she said.

Air Force Wants To Break Reliance On Russian Engines - Business Insider

 

[F-22Raptor]

This is long overdue. I'll give the Russians credit, they know how to make sturdy efficient rocket engines, but we ultimately took the cheap way out. I'm happy to see progress being made on a new class of engine.

 

[Indus Falcon]

Hunt for RD-180 Replacement Begins
ULA Seeks Alternatives From Industry
Jun. 23, 2014 -By AARON MEHTA

New Engine: ULA is starting the hunt for a replacement to the Russian-made RD-180 engine, used in the Atlas V launch vehicle. (US Air Force)


WASHINGTON— When the United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced on June 16 that it had reached an agreement with “multiple” US companies to study a next-generation engine replacement, the joint venture took a big step to ward off challenges to its use of a Russian-made engine.

The RD-180 engine, which powers the ULA Atlas V, has become a point of contention for members of Congress — and the public — who wonder why a key national asset for space launch relies on imported equipment from Russia. That issue only worsened when Russian officials threatened to halt sales of the RD-180 for military use.

While insisting the RD-180 pipeline remains open, ULA President and CEO Michael Gass wants to fund companies to look into what a next-generation, American engine could look like if Congress goes through with plans for a replacement program.

“Given the turmoil in Ukraine, we do believe now is the right time for a domestic investment, which is why we announced on Monday that we are supporting a new engine study, with multiple companies,” Gass said.

Gass, during a June 18 press event, would not identify the companies involved, but Aerojet Rocketdyne and ATK are capable of developing a new engine. A spokesman for Aerojet declined to comment on ULA’s announcement; a spokesperson for ATK did not respond to requests for comment.

Any hope of keeping costs on the engine down depend on the commercial market, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski.

“I want this engine to enable US launch companies to be competitive in the world, not just in national security, because then I can have more launches that will use this rocket, which means I can drive down the cost of the rocket,” Pawlikowski told Defense News on June 11. “So I believe the initial step will be to understand what the market is for this engine.”

Pawlikowski, former head of Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, who is transitioning to head up service acquisition at the Pentagon, called for an in-depth study of what the market can support.

“The bottom line is you need to do the business case. What’s the business case for that engine? If you can’t make the business case for it, then it’s going to be a very expensive proposition,” Pawlikowski said. “If it were me to try and develop this strategy, I’d be looking for a public-private partnership approach to the actual development and that would drive down the cost.”

“Part of the purpose of these study contracts it to refine the technical concept, as well as the business case estimates, and really go into this with eyes wide open,” Gass said. “When you put some money into working out some of the technical [aspects], you can hone or get a better level of fidelity on the nonrecurring and recurring cost estimates. We need to understand the right business case. We need to look at multiple options, so if and when the government funds such a program, we’re in a position to support it.”

If it finds the business case, would ULA invest in a new engine from its own funds? “Absolutely,” Gass said. But “that has been the challenge. … You have to have a market, you have to have an acquisition strategy for buying launch vehicles that makes sense.”

Pawlikowski noted that there is already one RD-180 alternative out there — the Merlin engine used by SpaceX on its Falcon 9. While it requires nine Merlin rockets to equal the power of one RD-180, ordering those quantities allows SpaceX to maintain a stronger production line.

Asked June 10 whether his company would take part in an engine development program, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, responded “maybe.”

“It sort of depends on what the parameters are of the engine procurement,” Musk said, before taking a shot at rival ULA. “I don’t think we’d want to just replace the RD-180. I think the days of the Atlas V are numbered, so there’s no point in creating a rocket for an engine that won’t exist.”

“There’s so many variations on this engine question,” Pawlikowski said. “Do you make one big engine? Do you do what Elon has done and you have more than one engine and you gang them together? There’s value to both [approaches].”

And the RD-180 has its supporters. “There’s nothing out there that’s better in terms of weight-to-power ratio than the RD-180,” said Marco Caceres, an analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group. “I don’t know if you can come up with an engine as powerful as the RD-180 in a short time from scratch.

“It’s really more about developing the least expensive engine that will make the Atlas V much cheaper commercially.”

Hunt for RD-180 Replacement Begins | Defense News | defensenews.com

 

[Indus Falcon]

NASA and Boeing Sign Space Launch System Contract

Agreement reached as core-stage critical design review closes

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 2, 2014– Boeing [NYSE: BA] has finalized a contract with NASA to develop the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built and destined to propel America’s return to human exploration of deep space.

The $2.8 billion contract validates Boeing’s earlier selection as the prime contractor on the SLS core stage, including the avionics, under an undefinitized contract authorization. In addition, Boeing has been tasked to study the SLS Exploration Upper Stage, which will further expand mission range and payload capabilities.

The agreement comes as NASA and the Boeing team complete the Critical Design Review (CDR) on the core stage – the last major review before full production begins.

“Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS – the largest ever -- will be built safely, affordably and on time,” said Virginia Barnes, Boeing SLS vice president and program manager. “We are passionate about NASA’s mission to explore deep space. It’s a very personal mission, as well as a national mandate.”

During the CDR, which began June 2, experts examined and confirmed the final design of the rocket’s cryogenic stages that will hold liquefied hydrogen and oxygen. This milestone marks NASA’s first CDR on a deep-space human exploration launch vehicle since 1961, when the Saturn V rocket underwent a similar design review as the United States sought to land an astronaut on the moon. Boeing participated in that CDR as well, as the three stages of the Saturn V were built by Boeing and its heritage companies Douglas Aircraft and North American Aviation.

Scheduled for its initial test flight in 2017, the SLS is designed to be flexible and evolvable to meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs. The initial flight-test configuration will provide a 77-ton capacity, and the final evolved two-stage configuration will provide a lift capability of more than 143 tons.

NASA and Boeing Sign Space Launch System Contract