Athena (rocket family)

Athena is a Lockheed Martin expendable launch system which has undergone several name changes in its lifetime. Development began at the Lockheed Corporation in 1993, where the design was known as the Lockheed Launch Vehicle. The name was changed to the Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle when Lockheed merged with Martin Marietta. Late in the program's life the name was finally changed to Athena, and all of the launches after the demonstration flight in August 1995 were conducted using that name. Athena was retired from service in 2001, however in 2010 it was announced that it would be put back into production, with launches set to resume in 2012.^[2] In September 2010 Athena was added to NASA's Launch Services II contract.

Variants

The Athena comes in two versions, Athena I and Athena II. The Athena I has two stages, the Thiokol Castor-120 first stage and a Pratt & Whitney ORBUS 21D upper stage. The Athena II has three stages, the Castor-120 first and second stages, and an ORBUS 21D upper stage. When flights resume in 2012, the Athena Ic and Athena IIc configurations will use Castor 30 stages instead of the Orbus 21D stages on the original versions.^[2]

The Athena rocket uses an Orbit Adjust Module (OAM) developed by Primex Technologies. Primex was acquired by General Dynamics in 2001.^[4][5] For the September 28th, 2001 Athena launch, the OAM was built by General Dynamics Space Propulsion Systems of Redmond, WA.^[6] The OAM houses the attitude control system and avionics subsystem (guidance and navigation, batteries, telemetry transmitters, command and destruct receivers and antennas). This 1 meter (3.3 ft) long module is fueled with monopropellant hydrazine. After payload separation, the OAM performs a contamination and collision avoidance maneuver, distancing itself from the payload and burning any remaining fuel to depletion. Athena solid rocket motor provider ATK produces integrated upper stages using spin-stabilized or 3-axis stabilized Star solid motors that can provide higher velocities for GEO and escape (e.g. lunar and planetary) missions.^[7] Such an integrated upper stage based on a 2531 lb Star 37FM was employed for the launch of Lunar Prospector, the first lunar probe launched by a commercially developed launch vehicle.

Athena III

An Athena III rocket was planned, but never developed. It was to add two, four or six Castor-4A strap-on boosters to the stack.

The designation was later reused for a proposed rocket for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project. Sometime after 2005, PlanetSpace reused the Athena III designation for a 2.8-million-pound-thrust shuttle-derived space station resupply booster rocket, in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems (ATK). As of 2008^[update], the three companies had teamed up with Boeing and the State of Florida to obtain financing for project.^[8]

Launches

• The Demonstration Launch Vehicle, an Athena-I, failed to launch the GEMstar 1 communications satellite on Aug. 15, 1995. (Destroyed by range safety after control malfunction.) ^[2][9]
• An Athena I launched the NASA Lewis satellite on Aug. 22, 1997.
• An Athena II launched NASA's Lunar Prospector on Jan. 6, 1998.^[10]
• An Athena I launched ROCSAT-1 for the Republic of China (Taiwan) on Jan. 26, 1999.
• An Athena II failed to launch IKONOS-1, a commercial earth observation satellite, on April 27, 1999. (Failed to orbit because the payload fairing did not separate properly.)^[11]
• An Athena II launched IKONOS-2, a commercial earth observation satellite, on Sept. 24, 1999.
• An Athena I carried out the Kodiak Star mission for NASA and the Space Test Program, launching Starshine 3, Sapphire, PCSat, and PICOSat on Sept. 30, 2001. The mission was the Kodiak Launch Complex's first orbital launch.^[12]

References

See also

• OSCAR
• UO-11
• UoSAT-12 satellite