Orbital Antares - Manual (Page 13)

Antares
®
OSP-3
User’s Guide
Section 2.0
– Overview
Release 1.1 July 2013 2
2. ANTARES LAUNCH SYSTEM OVERVIEW
Orbital developed the Antares launch vehicle to serve the Medium-Class space launch market, and to
provide a cost effective, reliable and flexible means of placing Medium-Class satellites into orbital and
Earth-escape trajectories. The Antares design focuses on system reliability, transportability, and mini-
mum on-pad time.
2.1. Antares Launch Service
Orbital provides all of the necessary hardware, software and services to integrate, test and launch a
payload into its prescribed orbit. The Antares mission integration process completely identifies,
documents, and verifies all spacecraft and mission requirements. In addition, as part of the standard
launch services, Orbital will complete all required agreements, licenses, and documentation to
successfully conduct Antares launch operations.
2.2. Antares Launch Vehicle
The baseline Antares vehicle, shown in Figure 2.2-1, is a two stage, ground launched vehicle. Antares
features a low-risk design approach by incorporating flight proven components from leading global sup-
pliers, and by utilizing subsystem designs successfully flown on many Orbital launch vehicles.
Figure 2.2-1. Baseline Antares Launch Vehicle Configuration
To simplify description of the Antares configurations offered, Orbital has created a configuration number-
ing convention detailed in Table 2.2-1. Each configuration varies in the selection of second or third stag-
es depending on the unique requirements of the specific mission. All configurations rely on a common
Liquid Oxygen/Rocket Propellant (LOX/RP) Stage 1 booster powered by dual Aerojet AJ26 engines. All
Antares configurations also utilize a standard 3.9 m payload fairing, as well as common electrical, me-
chanical, and reaction control systems, ordnance devices, and flight instrumentation.