96 Current Launch Vehicle Data part1 (Orbital and planetary launch services)
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This article is from the Space FAQ, by Jon Leech leech@cs.unc.edu and Mark Bradford tla@surly.org with numerous contributions by others.
96 Current Launch Vehicle Data part1 (Orbital and planetary launch services)
Vehicle | Payload kg (lbs) | Reliability | Price (nation) | LEO Polar GTO | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ariane Ariane 4: 39/42 92.8% (ESA) AR40 4900 3900 1900 $65m (10,800) (8580) (4190) AR42P 6100 4800 2600 $67m (13,400) (10,600) (5730) AR44P 7725 5500 3000 $70m (17,000) (12,100) (6610) AR42L 7400 5900 3200 $90m (16,300) (13,000) (7050) AR44LP 8300 6600 3700 $95m (18,300) (14,500) (8160) AR44L 9600 7700 4200 $115m (21,100) (16,900) (9260) * AR5 18,000 ??? 6920 0/0 $105m (39,600) (15,224) [300nm]
The Ariane 4 series holds the largest market share in the international
commercial launch market. Development is funded by the European Space
Agency and lead by CNES, the French space agency. Operations are conducted
by Arianespace. The vehicles launch from French Guiana in South America.
The Ariane 5, an all new design, is scheduled for first launch in April of
1996. The Ariane 4 will be phased out by late 1998. Ariane 5 was
designed to launch multiple large communications satellites for a lower
cost than previous versions. However, satellites have continued to grow
since the program was started almost ten years ago. There is speculation
that Ariane 5 will eventually be too small to launch two satellites, but
too large to launch just one. Therefore, ESA has approved a roughly
$1-2 billion "Ariane 5 Evolution" project to increase GTO payload to about
7.4 tons in small increments after the year 2000.
Atlas 32/37 86.5% in last 10 years (USA) Atlas I 5580 4670 2250 $70m (12,300) (10,300) (4950) Atlas II 6395 5400 2680 $75m (14,100) (11,900) (5900) Atlas IIA 6760 5715 2810 $85m (14,900) (12,600) (6200) Atlas IIAS 8390 6805 3490 $115m (18,500) (15,000) (7700)
Atlas is the largest commerical launch vehicle in the US and is used
frequently for commercial and military launches. Starting in the summer
of 1995, Atlas is being marketed jointly with the Russian Proton vehicle by
International Launch Services, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and
Russian aerospace companies. This offers more flexibility for customers.
Vehicle | Payload kg (lbs) | Reliability | Price (nation) | LEO Polar GTO | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Conestoga 0/1 (USA) * Conestoga 1229 665 500 -- $15.5m (1460) (110) * Conestoga 1679 1500 1250 ??? ?? (3300) (2750) Conestoga 1620 1980 ??? 960 0/1 $18m (4355) (2115)
Conestoga has been a very star-crossed project. The vehicle was first
proposed by Deke Slayton's Space Services Inc, which was founded back in
1979 and eventually purchased by EER Systems Corporation. Conestoga got
its big break when it was picked for the COMET (now METEOR) program, to
launch three of the recoverable capsules. Unfortunately, the program
dragged on, over budget and behind schedule, and was even cancelled for a
while. Recently, a new arrangement was worked out to launch the METEOR
capsule once, in the hope that this would attract commercial customers.
The first Conestoga launch was attempted in August, but delayed by faulty
pressurization in the thrust vector control system. A second attempt
in October ended in the destruction of the vehicle. Unlike the LLV,
Conestoga does not have a significant order backlog, so its future is
uncertain.
Conestoga is assembled from Castor IV solid rocket motors and has been
offered in a variety of different configurations. In addition to those
listed above, the Conestoga 3632 and 5672 have been offered for larger
payloads.
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