Next Up: Cygnus
Veteran Space Company Orbital Sciences Ready for ISS, Wired
“With a few decades of space launch experience already under its belt, the Orbital Sciences Corporation is next up to demonstrate cargo delivery capabilities to the International Space Station. With so much attention focused on SpaceX’s successful demonstration flight last month, it might be easy to forget Elon Musk’s company is just one of two receiving investments from NASA as part of its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to deliver cargo to the ISS. And unlike upstart SpaceX, the other company in the COTS program is a veteran of the commercial space industry.”
OSC can pad their resumé and twist the facts all they want. But let me add two minor points about their “decades of experience” in spaceflight. It was their Taurus XL booster ( precursor to the Antares) that failed and dumped the Orbiting Carbon Observatory into the Antarctic Ocean,and the NASA GLory Satellite was lost for same reason : failed Taurus booster fairing. Cost of losses: north of $ 750 million.
By the way , the Taurus-Antares boosters hoisting Cygnus will fly using old Soviet NK-33 moon rocket engines, built c. 1968 , rejigged by Aerojet.
Just sayin’
The old joke about OSC = Ocean Submergence Corporation.
I have an OSC sponsored Ballistically implanted reef off the coast of Florida.
This should be interesting. SpaceX has pursued a vertical integration strategy where they make everything from engines to capsules and all the sheet metal in between.
Obital is pursuing a horizon strategy: engines from Russian, first stage sheet metal from the Ukraine, etc.
This is sort of like Apple vs. the PC. Apple does everything from custom hardware to proprietary OS. The PC is an amalgam of a hard drive from whomever, an engine from AMD or Intel, memory from wherever, a motherboard from what’s their name + the OS from MS or some Linux distro.
Which is better in the long run? We’ll see.
Not an analogy SpaceX wants to hear. PC still has about 90% of the market.
Yes horizontal vs vertical.
Suggest one compare cellphones and not computers. For Apple uses horizontal “PC” components in laptops, so they have combined models there.
Note how rigidly controlling everything about the iPhone is. All the vendors are locked into tight performance deals that sometimes they lose money on, while Apple can never lose a penny just the vendors. They even scare the Chinese in how ruthless they drive every aspect of the business to its ultimate end.
Google’s Android can 2x them on volume of units, but account for a fraction of the profitability. Microsoft has an insignificant market share for smart phones.
Now, the real significance for SpaceX is the Microsoft “eat your own dog food” – they produce what they consume. Unlike Microsoft, they want to work down consumption through reuse, because otherwise they’ll “suck like competitors”.
Orbital is doing an outsource horizontal model, taking already developed components and crafting things together. The point is risk reduction – realize that Musk’s strategy only pays off if he finds the right “recipe” fast enough that his accumulated costs don’t grow outside that of his competitors. Orbital’s strategy pays off if they can make it to the ISS for capital utilization a fraction of Musk’s, and then do a volume deal that can undercut Musk’s before his vertical model drops below Orbital’s vendors.
One of those vendors, Yuzhnoye made an ICBM a week in the USSR in the deep dark past.
Pass the popcorn.
As important as this is to COTS, NASA cannot get its public launch schedule correct. See http://www.nasa.gov/mission…
NASA will always have a credibility problem until – as a bare minimum – it gets competent public affairs people to make its case. For examples see any two weeks in any year of Keith’s fine blog.
Are you serious? NASA needs a hell of a lot more than competent PAO people to have credibility.
“NASA needs a hell of a lot more than competent PAO people to have credibility.”
Of course you are absolutely right. I was just suggesting if they can’t get the simple easy things right, how can they do the more difficult ones?
You capitalist fanboys will soon know the resilence of former Soviet space rockets! You contracts and government grant money are belong to us!
In Soviet Russia, rockets launch you! Oh… hey that works both ways.
This one is like throwing a bone to the Russians. Or wait, the Russians throwing us a bone? Oh well.