Why Ares-1 Should Fly (As a Satellite Launcher)
By Edward Ellegood
spacereport.blogspot.com
Last month, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
chief Bruce Carlson expressed his agency's growing
frustration that its Atlas and Delta space launch
options were too limited. With too few launch sites
and only one launch company (United Launch Alliance)
under contract, Carlson sees a bottleneck that
inhibits our nation's capability to deliver
intelligence-gathering satellites to orbit. “The
business of launch in this country is not very
good," Carlson said of the situation during a recent
conference.
That same month, a group of private-sector satellite
operators formed the "Coalition for Competitive
Launches" to expand the availability of Atlas-5 and
Delta-4 rockets for commercial missions. Developed
under the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch
Vehicle (EELV) program, these highly capable rockets
are marvels of engineering. But although they were
intended for dual government/commercial roles, they
have remained largely unavailable for commercial
missions.
From Carlson's perspective, according to Space News,
"part of the solution is more NASA involvement in
launch efforts." Without realizing it, NASA may
already have done a huge favor to NRO and the
Coalition for Competitive Launches. By funding
technology development for Ares-1, and sponsoring
risk-reduction with the recent Ares-1X test flight,
NASA has positioned Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to
enter the market for government and commercial
satellite launches.
I believe this non-NASA market was among the factors
considered by ATK when they supported trade studies
on whether Ares-1 should be launched from one of
NASA's Space Shuttle launch pads or a different
launch complex at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. A
converted Shuttle pad was determined to be the best
option for NASA. If another launch pad had been
developed or converted for Ares-1 (at NASA expense),
we would probably be hearing a lot right now about
the prospects for a commercial Ares-1.
Nevertheless, if Ares-1 is removed from
consideration for NASA's crew launch plan, ATK could
propose to add an Ares-1-like vehicle to the Air
Force's EELV program (like SpaceX intends to do with
its Falcon-9 rocket), meeting Carlson's desire to
expand the number of launch sites, launch companies,
and launch vehicles to meet our nation's
large-satellite launch demand. The big question is
whether ATK can offer such a vehicle at a
competitive price, including the cost for a new
launch pad and processing facilities.
SpaceX is way out in front of ATK on this
opportunity, with a February 2010 debut for its
Falcon-9, so ATK might have some doubts about
whether the government/commercial satellite market
is strong enough to support four launch vehicle
programs. If ATK does decide to pursue other markets
for Ares-1, Florida's Space Coast (and the thousands
of workers soon to lose their Space Shuttle jobs)
would have the best of both worlds: an operational
Ares-1 and whatever other system NASA
develops to replace it.
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