Space Systems/Loral's Aquarius Launch Vehicle is a low-cost launch vehicle designed to carry small, inexpensive payoads into LEO. Aquarius trades reliability for low launch costs. The vehicle will be primarily intended to launch into orbit bulk products, like water, fuel, and other consumables, that are inexpensive to replace in the event of a launch failure. The target launch cost is $1 million. As currently designed, Aquarius will be a single-stage vehicle 43 meters (141 feet) high and 4 meters (13.1 feet) in diameter and powered by a single engine using liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants. The vehicle is floated in the ocean prior to launch to minimize launch infrastructure and will be able to place a 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) payload into a 200-kilometer (125-mile), 52-degree orbit. The payload, located in the base of the vehicle, will be extracted by an orbiting space tug for transfer to its ultimate destination, after which the vehicle will de-orbit and be destroyed. Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is the wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications. ... A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit in which objects such as satellites are below intermediate circular orbit (ICO) and far below geostationary orbit, but typically around 350 - 1400 km above the Earths surface. ...

Space Systems/Loral studied Aquarius under a $110,000 grant awarded by the state of California in April 2001 and delivered a final report in June 2002. Space Systems/Loral teamed with Microcosm of El Segundo, California, and Wilson Composite Technologies of Folsom, California, for the study. Funding of $1 million was provided in the FY 2004 Defense Appropriations Act to develop a prototype of the low-cost engine for the vehicle. The engine would provide 400,000 pounds-force (1.8 MN) of thrust using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as propellants. For the engine development, Space Systems/Loral is partnered with Aerojet, a GenCorp Company based in Sacramento, California, ORBITEC of Madison, Wisconsin, and Microcosm. This program is now proceeding under the auspices of the Air Force Research Laboratory. The El Segundo skyline, as seen from Sepulveda Boulevard (CA/SR-1) El Segundo is a city in Los Angeles County, California on the Santa Monica Bay, incorporated on January 18, 1917. ... Folsom is a city located in Sacramento County, California, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 51,884. ... The pound-force is a non-SI unit of force or weight (properly abbreviated lbf or lbf). The pound-force is equal to a mass of one pound multiplied by the standard acceleration due to gravity on Earth (which is defined as exactly 9. ... In physics, the newton (symbol: N) is the SI unit of force, named after Sir Isaac Newton in recognition of his work on classical mechanics. ... Aerojet is a major rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Sacramento, California with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange, VA, Gainesville, VA, and Camden, AK. Their products include a wide range of propulsion, from main engines used on a number of NASA vehicles and ballistic missiles, down to stationkeeping... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Trees Location Location of Sacramento in California Government County Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo Geographical characteristics Area     City 99. ... The United States Air Force Research Laboratory with headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was created in October 1997. ...

(from [1] pp. 14–15)

External links

• http://homepage.mac.com/fcrossman/NorCalSAMPE/Comp_WS_papers/Turner_012204.pdf

References

• Space Time magazine, May/June 2001