Orbital Sciences successfully launched their Antares on its first COTS resupply mission today (after 2 demo flights last year).
While reading up on it, I was surprised by the amount of foreign and pre-existing parts of the vehicle.
- The first stage is made by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Ukraine and is derived from the Zenit rocket but has refurbished motors from the Russian N1 moon rocket.
- The second stage is an Alliant Techsystems (ATK) Castor 30 which is derived from Castor motors used on previous OS rockets and before that, missiles.
- The presurised cargo module is built by Thales Alenia Space of Italy.
- The service module is derived from OS's Star geostationary satellite buses.
It's quite a contrast from SpaceX's mostly in-house approach.
While reading up on it, I was surprised by the amount of foreign and pre-existing parts of the vehicle.
- The first stage is made by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Ukraine and is derived from the Zenit rocket but has refurbished motors from the Russian N1 moon rocket.
- The second stage is an Alliant Techsystems (ATK) Castor 30 which is derived from Castor motors used on previous OS rockets and before that, missiles.
- The presurised cargo module is built by Thales Alenia Space of Italy.
- The service module is derived from OS's Star geostationary satellite buses.
It's quite a contrast from SpaceX's mostly in-house approach.