The RD-180, the single most expensive Atlas 5 component, is built by NPO Energomash of Khimki, near Moscow. Meanwhile, prices for the Russian-built RD-180, a liquid oxygen/kerosene engine that powers the Atlas 5’s main stage, are also on the rise. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is facing the prospect of its business being “about half of what the shuttle business has been in the past,” Maser said, adding that the company is taking steps to reduce its facilities by over half in the next few years. The question is how long do we have to accommodate it for? If we’re expected to carry all the risk of that uncertainty it’s very difficult for us to cover without losing money.” “So we have to accommodate that at some level,” Maser said. Work is continuing on elements of Constellation, including the J-2X upper-stage engine that would be built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, but with NASA operating under a temporary funding measure and the budget outlook uncertain, the future direction of the human spaceflight program is murky at best. President Barack Obama proposed dismantling Constellation in favor of using privately developed rockets and spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from Earth orbit. Maser said NASA’s space shuttle follow-on program, Constellation, was expected to supplant between 80 and 100 percent of Pratt & Whitney’s work on the orbiter fleet, slated for retirement this year. “Combine that with another reduction in base, particularly on the NASA side, and that tends to challenge costs,” he said. Today, production rates have dropped from tens per year to three or four per year. 3 interview, noting that RL 10s at one time were bought in quantities of 40 to 60 over multiple years at high annual production rates. “Procurements over time have decreased in total volume and also the amount being procured per year ,” Maser said in a Feb. Air Force EELV Budget Expected to Skyrocket Jim Maser, president of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, said a number of factors, including lower production rates and changes in the way customers buy propulsion products and services, are driving up costs. The ULA-built Delta 4 rocket also uses a variant of the RL 10 as well as a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne-built main engine, but this vehicle currently is not used to launch NASA payloads. “So Pratt Whitney has all this capacity sized to do a space shuttle program and an RL 10 program, and when the space shuttle program goes away then they have all this capacity and all this cost and the only place they can charge it is back against the RL 10 program.” “The RL 10 is one that’s been impacted substantially by the fact that the space shuttle program is no longer active,” said George Sowers, vice president of business development and advanced programs at ULA. The RL 10 is manufactured by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., which also builds the space shuttle’s main engines. Industry officials said the winding down of the space shuttle program has led to higher prices for the RL 10 upper-stage engine, the second-most-expensive component on the Atlas 5, which is built by United Launch Alliance ( ULA) of Denver, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture. WASHINGTON - Rising propulsion costs, demand uncertainty and an eroding industrial base are the drivers behind what NASA says is a significant price increase for the Atlas 5 rocket, which is used to launch the agency’s most valuable scientific payloads, according to industry and NASA officials.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |