Supplier NASA company Orbital is going to make the launch of an improved modification of the Antares rocket in the first quarter of 2016. Previously booster Antares exploded at the moment of launch on cosmodrome Wallops in Virginia.
In early October, the booster Antares had to bring Cygnus space truck with 2 tons of Luggage on the ISS. Prerequisites disaster have not been officially announced, but according to experts, the tragedy could have been caused by difficulties in the engine AJ-26. While it doesn't say what engines will be used in the improved modification.
"The company has adopted its own ability to accelerate the introduction of a new main propulsion system for the Antares rocket and outlines 3 additional run (scale mission to deliver cargo to the ISS) in the first, second and fourth quarter of 2016 with the use of the improved apparatus", - quotes RIA Novosti statement Orbital.
Production and testing can begin as early as mid-2015. A new modification of Antares created for launch into orbit increasingly heavy vehicles, in consequence, with each flight truck Cygnus can be delivered to the ISS on 20% more cargo, says the company.
Earlier Days.Roo was informed that many precedents demonstrate in favor of the fact that the collapse of the Antares, who was holding a course to the International space station, happened through the fault of the Ukrainian producers of the first booster stage. Just 6 seconds after launch, the rocket exploded and transformed into a fiery ball. Flaming debris fell directly on the pad, in fact, destroying it.
Many experts believe that as the rocket broke out almost immediately after the start, the most "vulnerable" in this case is the engine 1 stage of the rocket and the control system. At the first stage Antares has 2 oxygen-kerosene rocket engine AJ-26 . This modified NK-33, which was created for the Russian lunar program, which for today's flights are modified at the Ukrainian enterprise - CB "southern" in Dnipropetrovsk.
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