Athena was a 1990s Lockheed Martin
expendable launch system which underwent several name changes in its lifetime.
Development began at the
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but ...
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 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.
Variants
The Athena comes in two versions,
Athena I
The Athena I, known as the Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV) at the time of its first flight and Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (LMLV) at the time of its second flight, was an American small expendable launch system which was used for four launches b ...
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, 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 28th, 2001 Athena launch, 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 long module is fueled with monopropellant
hydrazine. After payload separation, the OAM performs a contamination and collision avoidance maneuver, distancing itself from 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'', the first lunar probe launched by a commercially developed launch vehicle.
Athena III
1990s proposal
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.
PlanetSpace proposal
The designation 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
The original meaning of the word shuttle is the device used in weaving to carry the weft. By reference to the continual to-and-fro motion associated with that, the term was then applied in transportation and then in other spheres. Thus the word ma ...
-derived space station resupply booster rocket, in a joint venture with
Lockheed Martin and
Alliant Techsystems
Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) was an American aerospace, defense, and sporting goods company with its headquarters in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The company operated in 22 states, Puerto Rico, and other countries. AT ...
(ATK). In March 2012, Lockheed Martin selected Alaska's
Kodiak Launch Complex Kodiak may refer to:
Places
*Kodiak, Alaska, a city located on Kodiak island
* Kodiak, Missouri, an unincorporated community
*Kodiak Archipelago, in southern Alaska
*Kodiak Island, the largest island of the Kodiak archipelago
** Kodiak Launch Com ...
(KLC) as its dedicated West Coast launch facility for Athena rockets, clearing 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 -segment
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster
The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was the first solid-propellant rocket to be used for primary propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight. A pair of these provided 85% of the Space Shuttle's thrust at liftoff and for the first ...
(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 a satellite in polar orbit from Kodiak, or launch a 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.
[Lockheed Martin Connecting with Kodiak, Satnews Daily, March 05, 2012]
Launches
List of launches
Launch failures
Gemstar 1 (VitaSat 1) launch failure
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 the IMU high-voltage power supply caused loss of attitude reference. Flight terminated by range safety officer at T+160 s.
[International reference guide to space launch systems, Fourth Edition, p. 50, ]
IKONOS-1 launch failure
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 the cable carrying the signal to fire the longitudinal ordnance.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athena (Rocket Family)
Space launch vehicles of the United States