Orbital Sciences Corporation

Orbital Sciences Corporation

Type	Public (NYSE: ORB)
Founded	Vienna, Virginia, U.S. (1982 (1982))
Founder(s)	David W. Thompson Bruce W. Ferguson Scott L. Webster
Headquarters	Loudoun County, Virginia, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	David W. Thompson, Chairman and CEO J.R. Thompson, Vice Chairman, President, and COO Garrett E. Pierce, Vice Chairman and CFO
Industry	Aerospace Defense
Products	Space Launch Vehicles, Missile Defense Systems, Satellites and Related Systems, Advanced Space Systems, Space Technical Services
Revenue	$1,168.63M USD (FY 2008)
Employees	3,300 (2008)
Divisions	Launch Systems Group Space Systems Group Advanced Programs Group Technical Services Division
Website	www.orbital.com

Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC, though commonly referred to as Orbital) is a company which specializes in satellite launch and manufacture. Its Launch Systems Group is heavily involved with missile defense launch systems. Orbital formerly owned ORBIMAGE (now GeoEye) and the Magellan line of GPS receivers, though they are now divested (the latter to Thales). Orbital's NYSE ticker symbol is ORB. It has its headquarters in the Dulles area of unincorporated Loudoun County, Virginia, United States.^[1]

History

Orbital was founded in 1982 by David Thompson, Bruce Ferguson and Scott Webster.^[2] In 1990, the company successfully carried out eight space missions, highlighted by the initial launch of the Pegasus rocket.^[3] In 2006 Orbital conducted its 500th mission since the company’s founding.

In 1997 it spun off its space imaging division Orbital Space Imaging or ORBIMAGE (with Thompson then as chairman). It is now GeoEye.

Business Groups

• Space Systems Group (SSG)

Orbital is a provider of small- to medium-class satellites. Since the company's founding in 1982, Orbital has delivered over 110 spacecraft to commercial, military and civil customers worldwide. To date, these spacecraft have amassed a total of nearly 630 years of on-orbit operations.^[4]

• Launch Systems Group (LSG)

The Pegasus launch vehicle in its final assembly stage. A Pegasus rocket was put on display in the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in 2004.

Orbital's space launch vehicles primarily focus on boosting small payloads to orbit. The Pegasus rocket is launched from the company's "Stargazer" L-1011 carrier aircraft and has proven to be the industry's small space launch workhorse, having conducted 40 missions from six different launch sites worldwide since 1990. The Taurus and Minotaur ground-launched rockets combine Pegasus upper stages with either government-supplied or commercially available first-stage rocket motors to boost larger payloads to orbit. Minotaur IV is the newest addition to Orbital's line of space boosters and combines decommissioned Peacekeeper rocket motors with Orbital avionics and fairings, the Minotaur IV is only available to launch U.S. Government sponsored payloads.^[5]

Orbital is also a provider of suborbital launch vehicles for the nation's missile defense systems. In the last 10 years it has conducted nearly 50 launches for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Air Force, the Army and Navy to develop, test and enhance U.S. missile defense systems.^[6]

• Advanced Programs Group (APG)

Orbital’s Advanced Programs Group focuses on developing new technologies for human spaceflight, commercial transportation, aeronautical research and space transportation.^[7]

• Technical Services Division (TSD)

Orbital provides engineering, production and technical management personnel primarily for space-related science and defense programs. Typically, it supplies specialized personnel — engineers, scientists, technicians and other professionals — with specific knowledge in the areas that the customer is pursuing. The Orbital employees often work with the customers' technical staff at their facilities.^[8]

Primary Facility Locations

• Dulles, Virginia
• Chandler, Arizona
• Orange County, California
• Greenbelt, Maryland
• Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
• Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia (under construction)

Orbital Products

International Space Station Resupply

The Taurus rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base

• Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Demonstration resupply mission to ISS: debut of Cygnus spacecraft and Taurus II launch vehicle
• Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) $1.9 Billion NASA contract for 8 Cygnus/Taurus II resupply missions to the ISS^[9]

NASA Constellation Program

• Launch Abort System (LAS) for Orion Capsule

Satellite launch vehicles

• Minotaur Solid fuel Satellite launcher Rocket
• Pegasus Winged space booster component of an expandable launch system
• Taurus Four stage, solid fuel launch vehicle
• OSP-2 Minotaur IV, a satellite launching version of the LG-118A Peacekeeper
• Minotaur V Five stage satellite launching version of the LG-118A Peacekeeper
• Taurus II Three stages kerosene/oxygen - solid - hypergolic rocket (in development)

Experimental vehicles

• X-34 reusable launch vehicle demonstrator
• DART Rendezvous Vehicle
• Hyper-X
• Orbital Space Plane

Missile Defense Systems and Ballistic Target Vehicles

The GQM-163A Coyote Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target (SSST) flies over the bow of the U.S. Navy observation ship during a routine test

• Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Orbital Boost Vehicle (OBV) for the United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
• Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI)
• GQM-163A Coyote
• Target Test Vehicle (TTV)
• Minotaur II
• Minotaur III

GEO Satellites

STAR 2 platform

At its Dulles, Virginia plant Orbital builds medium-sized spacecraft based on the company's STAR 2 platform. Both payloads of a September 2007 Ariane 5 launch — Optus D2 and Intelsat 11 were built on the STAR 2 platform.^[10]

IndoStar-1 BSAT-2a BSAT-2b BSAT-2c N-Star c Galaxy 12 Galaxy 14 Galaxy 15 TELKOM-2

Optus D1 Optus D2 Optus D3 Intelsat 11 Horizons-2 Thor 5 AMC-21 MEASAT-3a NSS-9

Intelsat-15 (in production) Intelsat-16 (in production) Intelsat-18 (in production) Koreasat-6 (in production) AMC-5R (in production) FM-1 (in production) FM-2 (in production)

An Orbital STAR 2 Communications Satellite undergoes RF signal pattern testing in an anechoic test range at the Satellite Manufacturing Facility (SMF) in Dulles, Virginia

LEO satellites

The GALEX spacecraft is mated to its Pegasus launch vehicle

• GALEX
• SORCE
• DART
• AIM
• OCO
• GLORY (in production)
• ORBCOMM Fleet
• FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC
• NuSTAR (in development)
• OrbView-3
• Space Technology 8 (ST8) (in development)
• GEMS (in development)

Planetary probes

The Dawn spacecraft awaits mass properties measurements in the 100,000 class cleanroom at the Dulles, VA facility

• Dawn
• IBEX

Client Countries

• Australia
• France
• Indonesia
• Japan
• South Korea
• Malaysia
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Taiwan
• United States

Launch Sites

• Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California
• Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAS) in Florida
• Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in Virginia
• Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska
• Edwards Air Force Base in California
• Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands
• Canary Islands in Spain
• Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Hawaii

Partnerships

• Lockheed Martin
• Alliant Techsystems (ATK)
• Aerojet
• Yuzhnoye Design Bureau
• Yuzhmash
• Thales Alenia Space
• Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport

References

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External links

• Orbital Sciences Corporation page