Cygnus Mass Simulator

 2013-016D

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The Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares launch vehicle made its first flight on Apr 17. The rocket was an Antares 110 model, with a first stage using two Kuznetsov NK-33 engines refurbised and modified by Aerojet as the AJ26-62. The first stage core is built at Yuzhmash in the Ukraine, and the completed first stage is integrated by Orbital at its Wallops Island facility. The second stage is an ATK Castor 30A solid motor built mainly in Bacchus, Utah (the old Hercules). The Antares is launched from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority on part of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) at Wallops Island, Virginia. Pad 0A was built on the site of the old WFF Launch Area 0A used for the failed commercial Conestoga launch in 1995; it is next to Pad 0B, used for Minotaur launches.

The main payload for the Antares A-ONE mission is the 3800 kg Cygnus Mass Simulator, built at Orbital's Dulles factory. The CMS carries instrumentation to measure the launch vehicle environment (vibration, acoustic and thermal).

The CMS also carries ISIPOD deployers to eject four secondary cubesat payloads. Three of them are 1U cubesats from NASA's Ames Research Center, designed to demonstrate use of a commercial mobile phone as a spacecraft avionics/computer system. This follows a similar attempt by Surrey Satellite with the STRaND-1 satellite lauched on Feb 25, which ran into problems and seems to have stopped transmitting. The three cubesats, preciously, are named Alexander, Graham and Bell. The latter two are Phonesat 1.0 V1A and Phonesat 1.0 V1B, each built around a Nexus One Android-based smartphone. Alexander is Phonesat 2.0, based on a Nexus S phone and with an S-band radio, solar panels, GPS receiver, magnetorquers and reaction wheels.

The final payload is a 6 kg 3U cubesat, Dove-1, a demonstration satellite for the San Francisco-based startup company Cosmogia Inc. which is headed by former NASA employees who had earlier been involved in developing the Phonesats. The satellite will return on-board system health data and validate the design for future Dove satellites, which will carry remote sensing payloads.

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo spacecraft is based on a Star-2/LeoStar derived service module, and a Thales Alenia MPLM pressurized cargo module (PCM).

Antares Vehicle No. 2 is used for first flight (No. 1 for ground testing, will refurbish).

SM is 1700 kg with 2 panels Nominal PCM is 3500 kg including 2000 kg cargo, has a CBM; 3.7m long 4.5m dia Mass simulator used in testing has 3800 kg.

PCM-0 on COTS qual flight.

CMS carries 3 1U and 1 3U cubesat integrated by Spaceflight Inc. of Seattle, Washington using Isipod deployers. The 1Us are three ARC PhoneSats.

Mass is 5029 kg in orbit. Prop mass 12815 kg; Isp 301s so Ve = 2.952 km/s. Hence dV = 2.952 ln ( 17844 / 5029 ) = 3.739 km/s. Cf claimed dVr of 3.23 km/s.

A-ONE
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
2013 Apr 21	2100:00	Launch by Antares	WI/MARS LA0A
		T+3:50 MECO 107 km
		T+3:55 St 1 sep 113 km	-5110 x 250? x 51.5
		T+5:19 Fairing 2-piece sep 184 km
		T+5:24 Interstage sep 187 km
		T+5:28 St 2 burn 189 km Vr 4.24 km/s
	2108	T+8:03 St 2 burnout 256 km 29.4N 62.9W 7.468 km/s
	2110	T+10:03 255 km payload/St 2 sep	250 x 303 x 51.64
	2111?	T+11 St 1 impact
		CCAM burns
		T+18:44 End of mission