SPRSA
Excess Capacity Panel
Carol P. Welsch
Orbital Sciences Corporation
June 10, 2014
Welsch June2014
© 2014 Orbital Sciences Corporation. All Rights Reserved
.
1
Over 800 Space Missions Since 1982*
77 Commercial Satellites
72 Government Satellites
40 Space Payloads
77 Space Launch Vehicles
201 Interceptor & Target Vehicles
340 Sounding Rockets
*April 1982-March 2014
© 2014 Orbital Sciences Corporation. All Rights Reserved
.
Access to Space Options
© 2014 Orbital Sciences Corporation. All Rights Reserved
.
Hosted Payloads on ISS Resupply Missions
•
•
•
•
•
Complete End-to-end Mission Service: I&T,
Flight Operations, Data Delivery
Hosted on Cygnus spacecraft
Three Successful Cygnus Flights to Date
Up to 1 Year Lifetime
18-24 Month ATP-to-Launch Schedules
•
•
•
•
•
•
Payload Mass up to 100 kg
Payload Power up to 500 W (OAP)
Payload Volume up to 1 m3
Downlink Data Rates up to 3.5 mbps
Pointing Control 0.1°
51.6º Orbit Between 200 and 400 km
Rendezvous with ISS
• Hosted payload inactive
• Survival heater power provided
Depart
from ISS
Hosted Payload Mission
• Up to 1 year duration
• Data downlink via USN
• +X pointed at Sun, excursions supported
• Data delivered to science team
USN
Ground Stations
Launch
from
Wallops
Orbital MCC
Controlled
Deorbit
Payload Ops Center
© 2014 Orbital Sciences Corporation. All Rights Reserved
.
4
Addressing the Challenges

“What is the most politically acceptable, efficient, and cost effective approach to
accessing excess launch capacity?”
 No single approach meets every user needs

Steps could be taken to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness of rideshare
 Need to reconcile lengthy gov’t launch planning timelines with smallsat timelines
 Develop flexible, standardized interfaces and adapters (eg. EAGLE)
 Fully utilize DoD Space Test Program to identify rideshare opportunities for all users
− Should be on a regular and recurring basis
− Make community aware of opportunities
 Develop policy to enable commercial payloads to rideshare on gov’t launches
 Implement contracting mechanism to procure commercial rideshare services
Welsch June2014
© 2014 Orbital Sciences Corporation. All Rights Reserved
.
5