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Atlas III Rocket
The Atlas III (known as the Atlas II-AR (R for Russian) early in development ) was an American orbital launch vehicle, used in the years between 2000 and 2005. It was developed from the highly successful Atlas II rocket and shared many components. It was the first member of the Atlas family since the Atlas A to feature a "normal" staging method, compared to the previous Atlas family members, which were equipped with two jettisonable outboard engines on the first (booster) stage (with a single center engine serving as the sustainer). The Atlas III was developed further to create the Atlas V, which still flies to this day. Description The Atlas III was developed from the highly successful Atlas II rocket and consisted of two stages. The first stage was heavily modified from Atlas II and the upper stage remained the Centaur, which is still in use today on the Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). The Atlas III was produced in two versions. The baseline was the Atla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Launch Vehicle
A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and systems such as vehicle assembly and fueling. Launch vehicles are engineered with advanced aerodynamics and technologies, which contribute to large operating costs. An orbital launch vehicle must lift its payload at least to the boundary of space, approximately and accelerate it to a horizontal velocity of at least . Suborbital vehicles launch their payloads to lower velocity or are launched at elevation angles greater than horizontal. Practical orbital launch vehicles are multistage rockets which use chemical propellants such as solid fuel, liquid hydrogen, kerosene, liquid oxygen, or Hypergolic propellants. Launch vehicles are classified by their orbital payload capacity, ranging from small-, medium-, heavy- to super-heavy lift. Mass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas II
Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. The Atlas II was a direct evolution of the Atlas I, featuring longer first stage tanks, higher-performing engines, and the option for strap-on solid rocket boosters. It was designed to launch payloads into low earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. Sixty-three launches of the Atlas II, IIA and IIAS models were carried out between 1991 and 2004; all sixty-three launches were successes, making the Atlas II a highly reliable space launch system. The Atlas line was continued by the Atlas III, used between 2000 and 2005, and the Atlas V which is still in use. Background In May 1988, the US Air Force chose General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) to develop the Atlas II vehicle, primarily to launch Defense Satellite Communications System payloads under the Medium Launch Vehicle II (MLV-II) program. Additional commercial and U.S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GX (rocket)
GX was a design for an expendable launch system intended to compete in the commercial satellite launch sector. The system had developed by Galaxy Express Corporation, a joint venture between IHI Corporation (IHI), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), United Launch Alliance (ULA), Lockheed Martin Corporation (LM) and several other Japanese companies. The GX design uses a two-stage rocket. The first stage would have been the Atlas Common Core Booster, currently used as the first stage of the Atlas V rocket, which would have been provided by United Launch Alliance. The second stage was to be a newly designed stage produced by IHI, using liquefied natural gas as fuel and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. The GX would have been the only space vehicle to use that combination of fuel and oxidizer. The Japanese government finally abandoned the GX program in December 2009. Galaxy Express disbanded around March 2010. History The GX program began as an effort to upgrade Japan' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. federal government, and provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the NSA, imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the NGA, and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the DIA. NRO is considered, along with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), to be one of the "big five" U.S. intelligence agencies. The NRO is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, south of the Washington Dulles International Airport. The Director of the NRO reports to both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense. The NRO's federal workforce is a hybrid orga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geosynchronous Orbit
A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital period means that, for an observer on Earth's surface, an object in geosynchronous orbit returns to exactly the same position in the sky after a period of one sidereal day. Over the course of a day, the object's position in the sky may remain still or trace out a path, typically in a figure-8 form, whose precise characteristics depend on the orbit's inclination and eccentricity. A circular geosynchronous orbit has a constant altitude of . A special case of geosynchronous orbit is the geostationary orbit, which is a circular geosynchronous orbit in Earth's equatorial plane with both inclination and eccentricity equal to 0. A satellite in a geostationary orbit remains in the same position in the sky to observers on the surface. Communicat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communications Satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. Communications satellites are used for television, telephone, radio, internet, and military applications. Many communications satellites are in geostationary orbit above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky; therefore the satellite dish antennas of ground stations can be aimed permanently at that spot and do not have to move to track the satellite. Others form satellite constellations in low Earth orbit, where antennas on the ground have to follow the position of the satellites and switch between satellites frequently. The high frequency radio waves used for telecommunications links travel by line of sight and so are obstructed by the curve of the Earth. The purpose of communications sat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eutelsat 36A
Eutelsat 36A (formerly Eutelsat W4 and Eutelsat 3 F-4) is a French communications satellite operated by Eutelsat Communications. It was constructed by Alcatel Space and is based on the Spacebus-3000B2 satellite bus. Launch Eutelsat W4 was launched on the maiden flight of the Atlas III launch vehicle, which used the Atlas IIIA configuration. The launch was contracted by International Launch Services (ILS), and occurred on 24 May 2000, at 23:10:05 UTC from Space Launch Complex 36B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). Eutelsat W4 Following its launch and on-orbit testing, it was placed in geostationary orbit at 36° East, from where it provides communications services to Russia and Africa. It carries thirty-one transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerojet Rocketdyne
Aerojet Rocketdyne is an American manufacturer of rocket, hypersonic, and electric propulsive systems for space, defense, civil and commercial applications. Headquartered in Sacramento, California, the company is owned by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings. Aerojet Rocketdyne was formed in 2013 when Aerojet (then owned by GenCorp) and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne were merged, following the latter's acquisition by GenCorp from Pratt & Whitney. On April 27, 2015, the name of the holding company, GenCorp, was changed from ''GenCorp, Inc.'' to ''Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc''. Lockheed Martin announced plans to take over Aerojet Rocketdyne on December 20, 2020 as part of a $4.4 billion acquisition; however this was abandoned by Lockheed on February 13, 2022 after opposition from Raytheon led the FTC to move to block the acquisition. Products Current engines * RS-25 ( LH2/ LOX) – Previously known as the Space Shuttle main engine (SSME), it was the reusable main engine developed by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially airlines) and military aviation. Its headquarters are in East Hartford, Connecticut.Contact Us ." Pratt & Whitney. Retrieved on January 7, 2011. "Corporate Headquarters Pratt & Whitney 400 Main Street East Hartford, CT 06108." As one of the "big three" aero-engine manufacturers, it competes with and , although it has also formed joint ventures with bot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gimballed Thrust
Gimbaled thrust is the system of thrust vectoring used in most rockets, including the Space Shuttle, the Saturn V lunar rockets, and the Falcon 9. Operation In a gimbaled thrust system, the engine or just the exhaust nozzle of the rocket can be swiveled on two axes (pitch and yaw ) from side to side. As the nozzle is moved, the direction of the thrust is changed relative to the center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ... of the rocket. The diagram illustrates three cases. The middle rocket shows the straight-line flight configuration in which the direction of thrust is along the center line of the rocket and through the center of gravity of the rocket. On the rocket at the left, the nozzle has been deflected to the left and the thrust line is now incline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas B
The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dynamics at an assembly plant located in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. Atlas became operational in October 1959, but was soon made obsolete as an ICBM by new development, and was retired from this role by 1965. Atlas required long preparation times which made it unsuitable for a quick launch ICBM. However, this was not a requirement for planned space launches, and so Atlas-derived launch vehicles served a long history as space launchers. Even before its ICBM use ended in 1965, Atlas had placed four Project Mercury astronauts in orbit and was becoming the foundation for a family of successful space launch vehicles, most notably Atlas Agena and Atlas Centaur. Mergers led to the acquisition of the Atlas Centaur line by the United Launch Alliance. Tod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
