Athena was a 1990s Lockheed Martin expendable launch system which underwent several name changes in its lifetime.
94-852: Development began at the Lockheed Corporation in 1993, where the design was known as the Lockheed Launch Vehicle . The name was subsequently changed to the Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle when Lockheed merged with Martin Marietta . In 1997 the name was finally changed to Athena, and all of the launches after the demonstration flight in August 1995 were conducted using that name. Athena was retired from service in 2001, but in September 2010 Athena
188-705: A Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 in Korea, although by this time the F-80 (as it was redesignated in June 1948) was already considered obsolete. Starting with the P-80, Lockheed's secret development work was conducted by its Advanced Development Division, more commonly known as the Skunk works . The name was taken from Al Capp 's comic strip Li'l Abner . This organization has become famous and spawned many successful Lockheed designs, including
282-698: A flight controller . The RSO works at the Range Operations Control Center at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and the job of the RSO ends when the missile or vehicle moves out of range and is no longer a threat to any sea or land area (after completing first stage ascent). Unlike the US program, the Russian space program does not destroy rockets mid-air when they malfunction. If a launch vehicle loses control, either ground controllers may issue
376-651: A 4,600 kg (10,100 lb) satellite in polar orbit from Kodiak, or launch a 5,900 kg (13,000 lb) satellite from the East Coast into an orbit due east; however an East Coast launch site had not been selected. Kodiak was selected over heavily booked Vandenberg to avoid delays in high-priority rapid-response launches for the U.S. military. On August 15, 1995, an Athena-1 rocket (vehicle DLV), failed during launch. Expended hydraulic fluid burned in first stage aft section, damaging nozzle feedback cables causing loss of gimbal control and tumbling. Separately, arcing in
470-861: A common misconception, the MFCO is not part of the Safety Office, but is instead part of the Operations group of the Range Squadron of the Space Launch Delta 45 of the Space Force , and is considered a direct representative of the Delta Commander. The MFCO is guided in making destruct decisions by as many as three different types of computer display graphics, generated by the flight analysis section of range safety. One of
564-410: A first stage splashdown north of Cuba. Such a launch corridor is not feasible with a ground-commanded system due to radio interference from the rocket's own exhaust plume facing the ground station. In August 2020, SpaceX demonstrated this capability with the launch of SAOCOM 1B . The AFTS on SpaceX's Starship exhibited considerable issues on its first flight . SpaceX expected the vehicle to be given
658-445: A flight by own initiative , including the infamous Ariane 501 in 1996. In 2018, an Ariane 5 launcher carrying two commercial satellites veered off course shortly after liftoff . Ground control was shown a nominal course of the rocket until 9 minutes into the flight, when the second stage ignited and contact was lost. The rocket nearly flew over Kourou , and at the time the RSO realised that it flew closer to land than intended, it
752-463: A flight termination system. Range safety has been practiced since the early launch attempts conducted from Cape Canaveral in 1950. Space vehicles for sub-orbital and orbital flights from the Eastern and Western Test Ranges were destroyed if they endangered populated areas by crossing pre-determined destruct lines encompassing the safe flight launch corridor. After initial lift-off, flight information
846-536: A launch vehicle's location to the range. Range safety measures are performed during launches of the Chollima-1 orbital launch vehicle. On the successful third launch attempt of the rocket, it was reported that officials activated the flight termination system on the first stage after separation, presumably to destroy evidence in an effort to prevent reverse engineering if the booster were to be recovered by South Korea or allies. A flight termination system (FTS)
940-508: A leafy texture. Lockheed ranked tenth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. All told, Lockheed and its subsidiary Vega produced 19,278 aircraft during World War II, representing six percent of war production, including 2,600 Venturas , 2,750 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers (built under license from Boeing ), 2,900 Hudson bombers, and 9,000 Lightnings. During World War II, Lockheed, in cooperation with Trans-World Airlines (TWA), had developed
1034-452: A manner that is as controlled as possible. This is done by detonating high explosives , usually linear shaped charges , in specific areas of the rocket, which initiates structural failure and renders the vehicle aerodynamically unstable. On liquid-fueled rockets , the propellant tanks are cut open to spill out their contents. The rocket's engines are usually also destroyed or disabled. On rockets containing hypergolic propellants ,
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#17327795505921128-477: A manual shutdown command or the onboard computer can perform it automatically. In this case, the rocket is simply allowed to impact the ground intact. Since Russia's launch sites are in remote areas far from significant populations, it has never been seen as necessary to include a flight termination system. During the Soviet era, expended rocket stages or debris from failed launches were thoroughly cleaned up, but since
1222-523: A rocket launch, it is required to be effectively 100 percent reliable. Flight termination systems are also frequently installed on unmanned aerial vehicles . To prevent other components from interfering with its decisions, the FTS has to operate entirely independently from the rocket; as such, it needs separate maintenance and comes with its own power source. In the case of multistage rockets and those utilizing side boosters, each stage and each booster on
1316-539: A safe trajectory. The vehicle then may be destroyed by its tanks colliding and cracking. This method was first proposed for the Titan III-M launch vehicle, which would have been used in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. An autonomous flight termination system (AFTS) or autonomous flight safety system (AFSS) is a system in which flight termination can be commanded on a rocket without
1410-408: A separate computer unit on the rocket itself. Before each launch, the area surrounding the launch pad is evacuated, and notices to aviators and boatsmen to avoid certain locations on launch day are given. This facilitates the creation of a designated area for rockets to launch, called the launch corridor. The borders of the launch corridor are called the destruct lines. The exact coordinates of
1504-544: A slate of his own choosing, since he was the largest investor. His board nominations included former Texas Senator John Tower , the onetime chairman of the Armed Services Committee , and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr ., a former Chief of Naval Operations. Simmons had first begun accumulating Lockheed stock in early 1989 when deep Pentagon cuts to the defense budget had driven down prices of military contractor stocks, and analysts had not believed he would attempt
1598-605: A somewhat similar set of graphics and display system. However, the Western Range MFCOs fall under the Safety Team during launches, and they are the focal point for all safety related activities during a launch. Even for U.S. crewed space missions, the RSO has authority to order the remote destruction of the launch vehicle if it shows signs of being out of control during launch, and if it crosses pre-set abort limits designed to protect populated areas from harm. In
1692-498: A substantial link margin . The signal levels seen by the range safety receivers are checked before launch and monitored throughout flight to ensure adequate margins. When the launch vehicle is no longer a threat, the range safety system is typically safed (shut down) to prevent inadvertent activation. The S-IVB stage of the Saturn 1B and Saturn V rockets did this with a command to the range safety system to remove its own power. In
1786-603: A year. 48 launches annually can now be supported, and the cost of range services for a single launch has been reduced by 50 percent. The addition of AFTS has also loosened up the inclination limits on launches from the US Eastern Range. By early 2018, the US Air Force had approved a trajectory that could allow polar launches to take place from Cape Canaveral . The 'polar corridor' would involve turning south shortly after liftoff, passing just east of Miami, with
1880-412: Is a set of interconnected activators and actuators mounted on a launch vehicle which can shut down or destroy components of the vehicle to render it incapable of flight. The main task of an FTS is to remove any means of propulsion for any part of a rocket involved in a malfunction when necessary. As it is the only thing that is able to ensure the safety of ground facilities, personnel and spectators during
1974-546: Is captured with X- and C-band radars, and S-Band telemetry receivers from vehicle-borne transmitters. At the Eastern Test Range, S and C-Band antennas were located in the Bahamas and as far as the island of Antigua, after which the space vehicle finished its propulsion stages or is in orbit. Two switches were used, arm and destruct . The arm switch shut down propulsion for liquid propelled vehicles, and
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#17327795505922068-409: Is destroyed during flight to prevent it from leaving the launch corridor or continue an otherwise errant flight. The resulting destruction is required to scatter rocket parts over a small area, ensuring the majority of the parts stay within the launch corridor and are able to cause as little damage or injuries as possible. Additionally, it has to combust and disperse its propellant far above the ground in
2162-616: Is in Kourou , French Guiana. ESA rockets employ flight safety systems similar to the US' despite the relative remoteness of the launch center. Range safety at Europe's Spaceport is the responsibility of the Flight Safety Team, with the launch site and surrounding areas being safeguarded by the French Foreign Legion . The earliest Ariane 5 rockets were controlled by flight computers with the capability to terminate
2256-507: The DC-10 ) strongly opposed the bill and they feared the government would steer contracts to Lockheed to insure loan payments. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover condemned the bill saying it represented "a new philosophy where we privatize profits and socialize losses." The New York Times editorial board held that the Nixon administration was violating its own free enterprise principles by advocating for
2350-540: The Imperial Japanese Army . At the beginning of World War II, Lockheed – under the guidance of Clarence (Kelly) Johnson , who is considered one of the best-known American aircraft designers – answered a specification for an interceptor by submitting the P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft, a twin-engined, twin-boom design. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout
2444-565: The L-049 Constellation , a radical new airliner capable of flying 43 passengers between New York and London at a speed of 300 mph (480 km/h) in 13 hours. Once the Constellation (nicknamed Connie ) went into production, the military received the first production models; after the war, the airlines received their original orders, giving Lockheed more than a year's head-start over other aircraft manufacturers in what
2538-666: The US space program , range safety is usually the responsibility of a Range Safety Officer (RSO), affiliated with either the civilian space program led by NASA or the military space program led by the Department of Defense , through its subordinate unit the United States Space Force . At NASA , the goal is for the general public to be as safe during range operations as they are in their normal day-to-day activities. All US launch vehicles are required to be equipped with
2632-407: The destruct ignited the primacord surrounding the fuel tanks. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station saw around 450 failed launches of missiles and rockets (of around 3400 total) between 1950 and 1998, with an unknown amount of flights ending by intervention of onboard or ground-based safety mechanisms. As of June 2024, the most recent activation of the flight termination system on a US rocket
2726-545: The "Lockheed Loan". Even after its adoption, a further controversy developed when the Emergency Loan Guarantee Board set up by the Executive branch to oversee the loan refused to allow Congress' General Accounting Office to examine its records. They argued that the office was attempting "interference in the decision-making process" amounting to an effort to "bully" and "harass" the board. This claim
2820-555: The 1970s. Drowning in debt, in 1971 Lockheed (then the largest US defense contractor) asked the US government for a loan guarantee, to avoid insolvency. Lockheed argued that a government bailout was necessary due to the company's value for U.S. national security. On May 13, 1971, the Richard Nixon administration sent a bill titled "The Emergency Loan Guarantee Act" to Congress requesting a $ 250 million loan guarantee for Lockheed and its L-1011 Tristar airbus program. The measure
2914-461: The 1970s. In late 1975 and early 1976, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate led by Senator Frank Church concluded that members of the Lockheed board had paid members of friendly governments to guarantee contracts for military aircraft. In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $ 22 million in bribes to foreign officials in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including
Athena (rocket family) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-569: The Castor-120 first and second stages, and an ORBUS 21D upper stage. For future flights, the Athena Ic and Athena IIc configurations would use Castor 30 stages instead of the Orbus 21D stages on the original versions. The Athena rocket uses an Orbit Adjust Module (OAM) developed by Primex Technologies. Primex was acquired by General Dynamics in 2001. For the September 28, 2001 Athena launch,
3102-549: The Constellation obsolete. However, the design proved underpowered. The company sought to purchase Convair in 1946, but the sale was blocked by the SEC . In 1943, Lockheed began, in secrecy, development of a new jet fighter at its Burbank facility. This fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star , became the first American jet fighter to score a kill. It also recorded the first jet-to-jet aerial kill, downing
3196-799: The F-104 Starfighter, the so-called Deal of the Century. The scandal caused considerable political controversy in West Germany , the Netherlands , Italy, and Japan. In the US, the scandal led to passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act , and nearly led to the ailing corporation's downfall (it was already struggling due to the poor sales of the L-1011 airliner). Haughton resigned his post as chairman. In
3290-428: The FTS usable and shut down the engines of liquid-fueled rockets. Now, the FTS is usually armed just before launch. A separate 'fire' command detonates explosives, typically linear shaped charges , to disable the rocket. Reliability is a high priority in range safety systems, with extensive emphasis on redundancy and pre-launch testing. Range safety transmitters operate continuously at very high power levels to ensure
3384-456: The IMU high-voltage power supply caused loss of attitude reference. Flight terminated by range safety officer at T+160 s. On April 27, 1999, an Athena-2 rocket (vehicle LM-005), failed during launch. The payload fairing failed to separate, and the extra weight prevented the vehicle from reaching orbit. During the fairing separation event, the shock of the circumferential ordnance firing disconnected
3478-665: The Launch Escape System time to pull the capsule away. The U.S. Space Shuttle orbiter did not have destruct devices, but the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and external tank both did. After the Space Shuttle Challenger broke up in flight , the RSO ordered the uncontrolled, free-flying SRBs destroyed before they could pose a threat. Despite the fact that the RSO continues work after Kennedy Space Center hands over control to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center , they are not considered to be
3572-612: The Lockheed Aircraft Company to Detroit Aircraft Corporation . In August 1929, Allan Loughead resigned. The Great Depression ruined the aircraft market, and Detroit Aircraft went bankrupt. A group of investors headed by brothers Robert and Courtland Gross, and Walter Varney , bought the company out of receivership in 1932. The syndicate bought the company for a mere $ 40,000 ($ 858,000 in 2023). Ironically, Allan Loughead himself had planned to bid for his own company, but had raised only $ 50,000 ($ 824,000), which he felt
3666-497: The OAM was built by General Dynamics Space Propulsion Systems of Redmond, WA . The OAM houses the attitude control system and avionics subsystem (guidance and navigation, batteries, telemetry transmitters, command and destruct receivers and antennas). This 1 meter (3.3 feet) long module is fueled with monopropellant hydrazine . After payload separation, the OAM performs a contamination and collision avoidance maneuver, distancing itself from
3760-765: The Poseidon and Trident nuclear missiles. Lockheed developed the F-104 Starfighter in the late 1950s, the world's first Mach 2 fighter jet. In the early 1960s, the company introduced the C-141 Starlifter four-engine jet transport. During the 1960s, Lockheed began development for two large aircraft: the C-5 Galaxy military transport and the L-1011 TriStar wide-body civil airliner. Both projects encountered delays and cost overruns. The C-5
3854-402: The RSO for this information were a supporting team of RSOs reporting from profile and horizontal parallel wires used at liftoff (before radar technology was available) and telemetry indicators. Throughout the flight, RSOs pay close attention to the instantaneous impact point (IIP) of the launch vehicle, which is constantly updated along with its position; when a rocket is predicted to cross one of
Athena (rocket family) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-477: The Transfer Orbit Stage (under subcontract to Orbital Sciences Corporation ) and various satellite models. Lockheed's operations were divided between several groups and divisions, many of which continue to operate within Lockheed A partial listing of aircraft and other vehicles produced by Lockheed. Range safety In rocketry , range safety or flight safety is ensured by monitoring
4042-706: The U-2 (late 1950s), SR-71 Blackbird (1962) and F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter (1978). The Skunk Works often created high-quality designs in a short time and sometimes with limited resources. In 1954, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules , a durable four-engined transport, flew for the first time. This type remains in production today. In 1956, Lockheed received a contract for the development of the Polaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile ( SLBM ); it would be followed by
4136-411: The cable carrying the signal to fire the longitudinal ordnance. Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer . Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin . Its founder, Allan Lockheed , had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-unrelated Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company , which
4230-454: The case of crewed flight, the vehicle would be allowed to fly to apogee before the destruct was transmitted. This would allow the astronauts the maximum amount of time for their self-ejection. Just prior to activation of the destruct charges, the engine(s) on the booster stage are also shut down. For example, on the 1960s Mercury/Gemini/Apollo launches, the RSO system was designed to not activate until three seconds after engine cutoff to give
4324-556: The collapse of the USSR, this practice has lapsed. It is unknown if China implements safety and contingency assessments surrounding rocket launches and if a flight termination system is installed in each of the country's launch vehicles. The country is known for leaving rocket parts to fall back to Earth in an uncontrolled trajectory. In one case , a launch vehicle crashed into a village near Xichang Satellite Launch Center after veering off course, killing at least six persons. In 2024,
4418-661: The company should be allowed to go into bankruptcy citing the recent decision to leave Penn Central railroad to that fate, and the fact that the airbus program at issue was commercial rather than military. Naval scholar Thomas Paul Stanton notes that the opposition to the bill held it was "the beginning of the socialization of the American aircraft and aerospace industry." Proponents responded by claiming "this socializing process had taken place many years before", and some witnesses before Congress discounted "the very notion of 'free enterprise'." Treasury Secretary Connally pointed to
4512-666: The debris would fall if the MFCO were to destroy the Shuttle at that moment. This real time footprint was developed in response to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 when stray solid rocket boosters unexpectedly broke off from the destroyed core vehicle and began traveling uprange, toward land. Range safety at the Western Range ( Vandenberg Space Force Base in California) is controlled using
4606-557: The destruct command at the point the vehicle lost thrust vector control at T+1:30, but this was done much later. Upon activation, the explosive ordnance detonated as expected, but destruction was delayed; the vehicle was only destroyed at T+3:59, 40 seconds after the AFTS was estimated to be triggered. In December 2019, Rocket Lab announced that they added AFTS on their Electron rocket. Rocket Lab indicated that four previous flights had both ground and AFT systems. The December 2019 launch
4700-460: The destruct lines in flight because of any reason, a destruct command is issued to prevent the vehicle from endangering people and assets outside of the safety zone. This involves sending coded messages (typically sequences of audio tones, kept secret before launch) to special redundant UHF receivers in the various stages or components of the launch vehicle. Previously, the RSO transmitted an 'arm' command just before flight termination, which rendered
4794-425: The engines is sufficient to ensure flight safety. In those cases, full destruction of the vehicle is not necessary as it will be destroyed during reentry or on impact in an empty spot in the ocean. The FTS instead commands either the valves of the propellant and oxidizer lines to close, or explosives (such as pyrovalves ) to sever the fuel lines, rendering the vehicle unable to use its engines and ensuring it stays on
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#17327795505924888-566: The entirety of American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day . It filled ground-attack, air-to-air, and even tactical bombing roles in all theaters of the war in which the United States operated. The P-38 was responsible for shooting down more Japanese aircraft than any other U.S. Army Air Forces type during the war; it is particularly famous for being the aircraft type that shot down Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto 's airplane. The Lockheed Vega factory
4982-484: The exception of the Space Shuttle , have employed a launch escape system to save the lives of the crew in case their carrier rocket malfunctions. A flight termination system typically consists of two sets of the following components: A flight can be terminated two ways, which are described below. In most cases, it is preferred that a malfunctioning launch vehicle is fully neutralized at altitude. A rocket
5076-455: The faltering economy and worries about unemployment while testifying "the time has come within the United States when we have to look at things differently. Free enterprise is just not all that free." Questions arose whether letting Lockheed fail would be bad for the market due to decreased competition or good by screening out inefficient competitors and mismanagement. Lockheed's competitors, McDonnell Douglas and General Electric (collaborators on
5170-490: The first lunar probe launched by a commercially developed launch vehicle. An Athena III rocket was originally planned and designated the LLV-3 in the 1990s according to the original patent. It was never developed, because of the lack of customer interest. It was to add two, four or six Castor-4A strap-on boosters to the first stage of the stack, and would have been capable of launching 3.6 tons to low Earth orbit. The designation
5264-630: The flight paths of missiles and launch vehicles , and enforcing strict guidelines for rocket construction and ground-based operations. Various measures are implemented to protect nearby people, buildings and infrastructure from the dangers of a rocket launch. Governments maintain many regulations on launch vehicles and associated ground systems, prescribing the procedures that need to be followed by any entity aiming to launch into space. Areas in which one or more spaceports are operated, or ranges, issue out closely guarded exclusion zones for air and sea traffic prior to launch, and close off certain areas to
5358-517: The intertank section or the common bulkhead of the rocket's tanks is ruptured to ensure the toxic propellants mix and combust as much as possible when flight is terminated. On rockets fueled by cryogenic propellants , the tanks are perforated from the side to prevent excessive mixing and combustion of propellants, as an FTS is not allowed to detonate propellants and cause a violent explosion. Solid-fuel rockets cannot have their engines shut down, but splitting them open terminates thrust even though
5452-503: The involvement of ground personnel. Instead, AFTS destructors have their own computers that are programmed to detect mission rule violations and implement measures to bring the mission to a safe end. Since 1998, these systems have been developed to bring down launch costs and enable faster and more responsive launch operations. Additionally, inadvertent separation destruct systems have been deployed to destroy parts of rockets autonomously when they are unintentionally removed or loosened from
5546-553: The late 1980s, leveraged buyout specialist Harold Simmons conducted a widely publicized but unsuccessful takeover attempt on the Lockheed Corporation, having gradually acquired almost 20 percent of its stock. Lockheed was attractive to Simmons because one of its primary investors was the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the pension fund of the state of California. At
5640-573: The launch corridor are dependent on weather and wind directions, and the properties of the launch vehicle and its payload. Launches can be postponed or scrubbed because of a boat, ship or aircraft entering the launch corridor. To assist the range safety officer (RSO) in monitoring the launch and making eventual decisions, there are many indicators showing the condition of the space vehicle in flight. These included booster chamber pressures, vertical plane charts (later supplanted by computer-generated destruct lines), and height and speed indicators. Supporting
5734-430: The launch vehicle is equipped with its own FTS. Flight termination usually destroys the payload with the rocket. Because of this, launch vehicles need to have their FTS examined on the extent of damage that could be inflicted on vehicle and payload upon activation, among other criteria, before they can receive certification for launching payloads relying on radioactive components for power. Crewed launch vehicles, with
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#17327795505925828-407: The loan. (Later, historian Stephen J. Whitfield viewed the passage of the loan guarantee as a support for the argument that America was shifting away from Lockean liberalism. ) Following a fierce debate, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the measure on August 2, 1971. President Nixon signed the bill into law on August 9, 1971 - which became colloquially known as
5922-543: The market after World War I . Allan went into the real estate market while Malcolm had meanwhile formed a successful company marketing brake systems for automobiles. On December 13, 1926, Allan Loughead, John Northrop , Kenneth Kay and Fred Keeler secured funding to form the Lockheed Aircraft Company ( spelled phonetically to prevent mispronunciation) in Hollywood. This new company used some of
6016-424: The payload and burning any remaining fuel to depletion. Athena solid rocket motor provider Alliant Techsystems (ATK) produces integrated upper stages using spin-stabilized or 3-axis stabilized Star solid motors that can provide higher velocities for GEO and escape (e.g. lunar and planetary) missions. Such an integrated upper stage based on a 2531 lb Star 37FM was employed for the launch of Lunar Prospector ,
6110-485: The primary displays for most vehicles is a vacuum impact point display in which drag, vehicle turns, wind, and explosion parameters are built into the corresponding graphics. Another includes a vertical plane display with the vehicle's trajectory projected onto two planes. For the Space Shuttle, the primary display a MFCO used is a continuous real time footprint, a moving closed simple curve indicating where most of
6204-559: The private company Space Pioneer unintentionally launched one of their Tianlong-3 rockets during a test; it crashed in the mountains 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) away from the test site in Gongyi , China. From the early 2020s, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) started developing and implementing methods to prevent uncontrolled reentries of their Long March rocket boosters, most prominently by
6298-417: The propellant will continue to burn, as the explosive charges break the rocket and its fuel into pieces. In some cases, only the nosecone or top section of the solid propellant case might be removed from a solid rocket, with the risk that the remainder of the rocket explodes violently and cause injuries or damage upon impact with the ground or water. In some cases involving liquid-fueled rockets, shutting down
6392-479: The public. Contingency procedures are performed if a vehicle malfunctions or veers off course mid-flight. Usually, a range safety officer (RSO) commands the flight or mission to end by sending a signal to the flight termination system (FTS) aboard the rocket. This takes measures to eliminate any means with which the vehicle could endanger anyone or anything on the ground, most often through the use of explosives. Flight termination could also be triggered autonomously by
6486-410: The ramifications of the Lockheed loan guarantee soon resurfaced in late 1975 with discussions on possible aid to New York City during its fiscal crisis . Lockheed finished paying off the $ 1.4 billion loan in 1977, along with about $ 112.22 million in loan guarantee fees. The Lockheed bribery scandals were a series of illegal bribes and contributions made by Lockheed officials from the late 1950s to
6580-730: The remainder of the vehicle. NASA started developing AFSS in 2000, in partnership with the US Department of Defense, with its development being included in the Commercial Orbital Transportation System program. Both ATK and SpaceX have developed AFSS. Both systems use a GPS-aided, computer controlled system to terminate an off-nominal flight, supplementing or replacing the more traditional human-in-the-loop monitoring system. ATK's Autonomous Flight Safety System made its debut on November 19, 2013, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility . The system
6674-535: The same technology originally developed for the Model S-1 to design the Vega Model . In March 1928, the company relocated to Burbank, California , and by year's end reported sales exceeding one million dollars. From 1926 to 1928 the company produced over 80 aircraft and employed more than 300 workers who by April 1929 were building five aircraft per week. In July 1929, majority shareholder Fred Keeler sold 87% of
6768-599: The system, KASSAV 2, will have the authority to automatically terminate the flight in the event of the rocket going off course. The Japanese government has approved AFTS for use on the country's launch vehicles since the mid-2010s. The SpaceOne KAIROS solid-fuel rocket uses an AFTS. Future launch vehicles such as the Blue Origin New Glenn , United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur and ArianeGroup Ariane 6 are expected to have them as well. NASA's Space Launch System plans to introduce an AFT system by
6862-521: The takeover since he was also at the time pursuing control of Georgia Gulf . Merger talks between Lockheed and Martin Marietta began in March 1994, with the companies announcing their $ 10 billion planned merger on August 30, 1994. The headquarters for the combined companies would be at Martin Marietta headquarters in North Bethesda, Maryland . The deal was finalized on March 15, 1995, when
6956-465: The time, the New York Times said, "Much of Mr. Simmons's interest in Lockheed is believed to stem from its pension plan, which is over funded by more than $ 1.4 billion. Analysts said he might want to liquidate the plan and pay out the excess funds to shareholders, including himself." Citing the mismanagement by its chairman, Daniel M. Tellep , Simmons stated a wish to replace its board with
7050-500: The two companies' shareholders approved the merger. The segments of the two companies not retained by the new company formed the basis for L-3 Communications , a mid-size defense contractor in its own right. Lockheed Martin also later spun off the materials company Martin Marietta Materials . The company's executives received large bonuses directly from the government as a result of the merger. Norman R. Augustine who
7144-434: The use of parachutes . The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) regulates space activities through its Safety and Mission Assurance department. The regulation JERG-1-007E stipulates many of the safety requirements to be maintained on the range on launch day, violations of launch safety, and the procedures to follow after launch aborts and failures and during emergencies on the range. The ESA 's primary launch site
7238-531: The way for Alaska Aerospace Corporation to begin expanding the facilities. At the time, Lockheed Martin declared that they would decide whether to proceed with Athena III "in the next few months" but no such announcement was made in the following years. Athena III was to feature a 2 1 ⁄ 2 -segment Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) derived reusable solid rocket booster (RSRB) first stage topped by one Castor 120, one Castor 30 and an OAMS orbit adjust module. Athena III would have been capable of placing
7332-716: The world in 1937. Subsequent designs, the Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior and the Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra expanded their market. The Lockheed Model 14 formed the basis for the Hudson bomber, which was supplied to both the British Royal Air Force and the United States military before and during World War II . Its primary role was submarine hunting. The Model 14 Super Electra were sold abroad, and more than 100 were license-built in Japan for use by
7426-494: Was added to NASA's Launch Services II contract. It was announced that it would be put back into production, with launches set to resume in 2012. All production had ceased by March 2017. The Athena comes in two versions, Athena I and Athena II . The Athena I has two stages, the Thiokol Castor -120 first stage and a Pratt & Whitney ORBUS 21D upper stage, both powered by solid-fuel . The Athena II has three stages,
7520-695: Was at the time CEO of Martin Marietta received an $ 8.2 million bonus. Both companies contributed important products to the new portfolio. Lockheed products included the Trident missile , P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft , U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance airplanes , F-117 Nighthawk , F-16 Fighting Falcon , F-22 Raptor , C-130 Hercules , A-4AR Fightinghawk and the DSCS-3 satellite. Martin Marietta products included Titan rockets , Sandia National Laboratories (management contract acquired in 1993), Space Shuttle External Tank , Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers,
7614-593: Was built in any number (141 aircraft) was the Vega first built in 1927, best known for its several first- and record-setting flights by, among others, Amelia Earhart , Wiley Post , and George Hubert Wilkins . In the 1930s, Lockheed spent $ 139,400 ($ 2.29 million) to develop the Model 10 Electra , a small twin-engined transport. The company sold 40 in the first year of production. Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan , flew it in their failed attempt to circumnavigate
7708-718: Was built to vague initial requirements and suffered from structural weaknesses, which Lockheed was forced to correct at its own expense. The TriStar competed for the same market as the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 ; delays in Rolls-Royce engine development caused the TriStar to fall behind the DC-10. The C-5 and L-1011 projects, the canceled U.S. Army AH-56 Cheyenne helicopter program, and embroiled shipbuilding contracts caused Lockheed to lose large sums of money during
7802-548: Was decided not to terminate the flight out of concerns that the resulting debris would hit the town adjacent to the launch site. The two satellites were deployed into an off-target orbit and were able to correct their orbits with substantial losses of propellant. The launch vehicles of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are tracked by C-band and S-band radars. As of February 2019, ISRO does not use GPS and NavIC to directly transmit
7896-433: Was denied by Comptroller General Elmer B. Staats , and efforts were made by Senator William Proxmire to get Treasury Secretary John Connally to testify due to the suspicion that the loan guarantee was in jeopardy. The editorial board of The New York Times blasted the situation, citing it as another argument against the propriety of the loan guarantee and the precedent it set for other failing companies. The debate around
7990-561: Was during Starship IFT-2 in 2023. For launches from the Eastern Range , which includes Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station , the Mission Flight Control Officer (MFCO) is responsible for ensuring public safety from the vehicle during its flight up to orbital insertion, or, in the event that the launch is of a ballistic type, until all pieces have fallen safely to Earth. Despite
8084-400: Was easily foreseen as the post-war modernization of civilian air travel. The Constellation's performance set new standards which transformed the civilian transportation market. Its signature tri-tail was the result of many initial customers not having hangars tall enough for a conventional tail. Lockheed produced a larger transport, the double-decked R6V Constitution , which was intended to make
8178-518: Was hotly debated in the US Senate. The chief antagonist was Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis), the nemesis of Lockheed and its chairman, Daniel J. Haughton. Some of the debate in Congress developed over what conditions should be attached to the bailout. Senator Alan Cranston demanded that the management be forced to step down, lest it set a precedent rewarding wasteful spending. Others argued that
8272-632: Was jointly developed by ATK facilities in Ronkonkoma, New York ; Plymouth, Minnesota ; and Promontory Point, Utah . The system developed by SpaceX was demonstrated in F9R Dev1 , a Falcon 9 booster used in 2013/14 to test its reusable rocket technology development program . In August 2014, after an errant sensor reading caused the booster to veer off course, the AFTS triggered and the vehicle disintegrated. The SpaceX autonomous flight termination system has since been used on many SpaceX launches and
8366-644: Was later reused for a proposed rocket for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project. Sometime after 2005, PlanetSpace reused the Athena III designation for a 2.8-million-pound-thrust shuttle -derived space station resupply booster rocket, in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems (ATK). In March 2012, Lockheed Martin selected Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC) as its dedicated West Coast launch facility for Athena rockets, clearing
8460-538: Was located next to Burbank's Union Airport which it had purchased in 1940. During the war, the entire area was camouflaged in case of enemy reconnaissance. The factory was hidden beneath a huge burlap tarpaulin painted to depict a peaceful semi-rural neighborhood, replete with rubber automobiles. Hundreds of fake trees, shrubs, buildings, and even fire hydrants were positioned to give a three-dimensional appearance. The trees and shrubs were created from chicken wire treated with an adhesive and covered with feathers to provide
8554-490: Was operational from 1912 to 1920. Allan Loughead and his brother Malcolm Loughead had operated an earlier aircraft company, Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company , which was operational from 1912 to 1920. The company built and operated aircraft for paying passengers on sightseeing tours in California and had developed a prototype for the civil market, but folded in 1920 due to the flood of surplus aircraft deflating
8648-513: Was the first Electron launch with a fully autonomous flight termination system. All later flights have AFTS on board. In the event of the rocket going off course the AFTS would command the engines to shutdown. In August 2020, the European Space Agency announced that Ariane 5 has AFSS installed on the avionics bay. The AFSS onboard Ariane 5 is called KASSAV (Kit Autonome de Sécurité pour la SAuvergarde en Vol). A later version of
8742-582: Was too small a sum for a serious bid. In 1934, Robert E. Gross was named chairman of the new company, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, which was headquartered at what is now the airport in Burbank, California . His brother Courtlandt S. Gross was a co-founder and executive, succeeding Robert as chairman following his death in 1961. The company was named the Lockheed Corporation in 1977. The first successful construction that
8836-508: Was well tested by 2017. Both the Eastern Range and Western Range facilities of the United States are now using the system, which has replaced the older "ground-based mission flight control personnel and equipment with on-board positioning, navigation and timing sources and decision logic." Moreover, the systems have allowed the US Air Force to drastically reduce their staffing and increase the number of launches that they can support in
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