>> Amiko Kauderer: NASA is poised and ready
for its test launch of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket
from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia
that will set the stage
for sending a new commercial cargo ship
to the International Space Station.
We spoke with Bruce Manners,
who is the Orbital Sciences Project Executive.
He is there at the Wallops Flight Facility
to support the test launch.
Hi, Bruce.
Thank you for taking time out to talk with me today.
>> Bruce Manners: Hello.
Well, not a problem.
I'm looking forward to talking to you.
>> Amiko Kauderer: The test rocket has rolled
out to the launch pad on April 6, and it's now poised for --
at the NASA's Wallops Flight Facility,
there on the Virginia's Eastern Shore, where you are now.
Let's talk about Antares and this test flight.
>> Bruce Manners: Sure.
The Antares is of course a new rocket,
being developed by Orbital Sciences.
It's a two-stage rocket.
The first stage is powered by two Aerojet AJ26 engines.
That's a LOX-kerosene fuel mixture,
and the second stage is a solid built by ATK Castor 30.
So, it will, it will launch from the Eastern Shore,
there at Wallops, off the MARS pad,
and place in orbit a Cygnus simulator.
The Cygnus will be the spacecraft
that Orbital will ultimately launch and take
to the space station, carrying NASA cargo.
And the simulator that we put on here really is intended
to mimic the mass properties of the --
[inaudible] like a test payload,
so that before we put the valuable Cygnus spacecraft
on the thing, we wanted a real mass simulator,
so that this mission could really test out all
of the phases that you're going to see
with a cargo demonstration services mission.
Now, we -- the rocket's going to follow the same trajectory;
this -- it will -- mission profile --
everything will mimic exactly what they'll do later
on with the demonstration mission and then, ultimately,
under their CRS contract.
So, this was an early risk reduction effort,
so we could try to retire the risk.
Whenever you go up, field a new rocket, there's always risks
on the first few missions
that you haven't really quite captured all --
everything exactly right, so this gives us an opportunity
to test it out and wring out the system a little bit,
before we start flying it to the International Space Station.
>> Amiko Kauderer: It -- I know, I've seen in some places,
it's described as a medium class launch vehicle.
What does that mean, exactly?
>> Bruce Manners: Well, there's several different classes
of launch vehicle.
There's the Atlas, which tends to take
up the heavier payloads -- the Deltas, and then this,
a little smaller class.
It just takes up -- little less capable as far as payload,
but it actually fits really well with sort of a medium
to commercial satellite payload capabilities.
I don't know the -- have those figures offhand exactly,
but it's just a little smaller vehicle than, say, the Atlas V,
so they -- intended to carry smaller satellites,
or in this case, the Cygnus spacecraft that'll take
up cargo to the space station.
>> Amiko Kauderer: And, can you tell me, how far can it go?
>> Bruce Manners: It's going
to put the Cygnus spacecraft right into low earth orbit.
It's going to be a mission payload --
or mission trajectory -- that mimics exactly what they'll do
with the International Space Station missions.
It will put the payload into orbit -- the Cygnus simulator --
that -- we're really considering the mission over,
from a payload delivery perspective,
at payload separation.
But it will put the simulator into orbit,
and it'll actually stay in orbit for up to a week or as much
as a month, depending on exactly how --
where it puts it into the orbit, so it --
it'll put it the whole way.
>> Amiko Kauderer: So, the test flight
of Antares rocket is scheduled to take place
at 4:00 p.m. Central time.
What do we as spectators, or folks here
on the ground, expect to see?
Can you describe its flight path?
Will anyone on the ground be able to see it?
>> Bruce Manners: You're going to be able
to see this pretty much from anywhere
on the Eastern Seaboard,
and I know that Orbital Science has posted some things
on their webpage, so that --
give folks the opportunity to try to figure out exactly
where they might want to be and what directions they want
to go look at, but they -- if you're that lucky enough to be
at Wallops, you're going to see the rocket ignite on the pad,
and take off, and start running downstream.
We're going to be able to get photos and videos of the --
as it's leaving the area here, and then eventually, of course,
it goes into orbit, [inaudible] to see it when it's up there,
but I think it's going to put off a great show,
and folks are going to be able to see it from even places
like Washington, DC, where you don't really get
to see a rocket very often.
So, if you go to the Orbital Science webpage --
I think NASA has some, as well --
there's a bunch of imagery that's out there
that teaches you, tells you where to look.
I've even seen some Google Map images, where,
if you're standing in Washington, DC at --
on the mall, it tells you what direction to look
and where you'll see it in the sky.
>> Amiko Kauderer: Real quick, you mentioned also
that this is the risk reduction test flight,
so how many missions are scheduled under this contract?
There's the test flight, and then what?
>> Bruce Manners: Well, under the initial agreement we have
that I've been working under, the COTS,
[inaudible] is actually a Space Act Agreement,
which is a little different as a contract mechanism
than an official contract,
because it's really a partnership agreement.
We have just the two launches under that: There's this one,
the test launch, and then we will have a full demonstration
mission, which, if all goes well with the test launch tomorrow,
then we're hoping as early as June or July,
or this summer anyways, we will have the demonstration mission
that'll go to the International Space Station.
And then, under the Orbital Sciences and NASA,
the Space Station Program have what's called the Commercial
Resupply Services, or CRS contract,
and under that contract, Orbital has eight missions assigned
to them, where they will take up real cargo, real payloads
to the International Space Station --
it will be food and water, new experiments,
and then once that's all up on orbit, they'll unpack that all
for the -- by the astronauts, and they'll put back
into the spacecraft, actually, trash.
It's going to be more or less a trash vehicle that they'll pack
up with all the stuff that they've gotten in orbit
that they don't need anymore, and they don't want anymore,
and there's no use for it.
They'll pack it into the spacecraft,
and the spacecraft will take it away
from the International Space Station and burn up on re-entry.