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Orbital Antares Hot-Fire Set

By Marc Boucher
NASA Watch
February 12, 2013
Filed under ,

Orbital Schedules Antares Engine Test for February 12th, SpaceRef Business
Orbital announced today that on Tuesday, February 12th they will perform a hot-fire test at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A for their new Antares rocket. The window for the engine test is 6-9 p.m. EST. NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility will provide launch range support.
Marc’s update: The hot-fire has moved to Wednesday though weather is moving in and could delay the test further. The test window will remain the same. Orbital informed me this morning that no live video of the test will be available. However, results of the test will be posted to their web site as soon as possible including “hopefully” good images and video. We’ll get it as soon as we can.

SpaceRef co-founder, entrepreneur, writer, podcaster, nature lover and deep thinker.

9 responses to “Orbital Antares Hot-Fire Set”

  1. Dewey Vanderhoff says:
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    I’m thinking it’s a good idea to hot fire all Russian engines . I’ll bet SeaLaunch wishes they had  before last week’s loss.

    • hikingmike says:
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       Don’t they all test fire them on a stand before? Maybe that’s slightly different conditions?

    • jski says:
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       From what I’ve heard and read, the NK-33 engines are the most advanced engines extant:

      “The engines are high pressure, regeneratively cooled staged combustion
      cycle bipropellant rocket engines, and use oxygen-rich preburners to
      drive the turbopumps. These kinds of burners are highly unusual, since
      their hot, oxygen-rich exhaust tends to attack metal, causing
      burn-through failures. The Russians, however, perfected the metallurgy
      behind this method. The nozzle was constructed from corrugated metal,
      brazed to an outer and inner lining, giving a simple, light but strong
      structure. In addition, since the NK-33 uses LOX and kerosene, which
      have similar densities, a single rotating shaft could be used for both
      turbopumps. Given its longer, heavier nozzle, the NK-43 ratio in vacuo
      is slightly heavier with a thrust-to-weight ratio of about 120:1.”

      • Dewey Vanderhoff says:
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        Advanced ? Really ?? Every one of those NK-33’s is at least 44+ years old.  They are surplus from the  failed Soviet  moon rocket program.

        • jski says:
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          What does that have to do with whether or not they’re the most advanced engines about?  When is the last time the US developed a new engine – 1960’s? (And BTW, the NK-33 rocket engines were not the reason the N-1 failed.)

          The 2 benchmarks for rocket engines are simply:
          weight to thrust ration and time to peak thrust.  And on those 2 benchmarks the NK-33 is the best.

          • Steve Whitfield says:
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            Guys,

            Orbital is NOT using NK-33 engines.

            The NK-33s were bought and significantly reworked by Aerojet.  The new engine is called AJ26.  A great deal of modification and testing has been done on them prior to this hot fire testing.  Your whole discussion here is meaningless.

            The NK-33 was very advanced for its time, but not by today’s standards.  The AJ26 includes some very up-to-date technology, so it can be considered advanced by today’s standards.

  2. Saturn1300 says:
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    No streaming.They say they don’t know when they will fire exactly.Maybe someone will put a spy cam on it,like they did with F9.Keith might be able to hear it and put out a notice.
     A lot delays for COTS.Kistler out,Boeing sues.In the end it worked out.Crew seems to be working better,except the companies are not putting up much of their own money.20% for the last round.Now NASA will not say.

  3. John Gardi says:
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    Orbital Sciences:

    What’s with the ‘no live video’ thing? Hey, I’ll sit watching LOX vent for three hours for an engine firing no problem! SpaceX, at least, hangs their mistakes out on the line to dry because they know that it helps build them a base of supporters. Like SpaceX, you need all the support you can get. In fact, not broadcasting live video for major events can generate negative results… like this post, for instance!

    Do the ‘right thing’, Orbital, a give us a live video feed for all your major milestones! If you don’t show your first launch, a lot of folks will be very unhappy. Really, it’s worth every penny of bandwidth and web admin to pander to the masses.

    tinker

    • Marc Boucher says:
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      It’s my understanding that Orbital does not live broadcast hot-fire tests. In fact, and correct me if I’m wrong, but neither does SpaceX. They provide video after the fact. ATK though does provide live video of hot-fire testing at times.