Lockheed Martin Corp. and Alliant Techsystems Inc. are teaming up to offer rocket launch services with the Athena rocket launch vehicles capable of carrying payloads up to 3,775 pounds to low Earth orbit as well as to the moon.Available for launches beginning in 2012, the new Athena can be launched from four U.S. locations including Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. and the Wallops Island, Va. Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
First-generation Athena I and II rockets began operating in 1995 and have flown seven times. Athena II launched the Lunar Prospector to the moon in 1998 and remains the only commercially developed launch vehicle to fly a lunar mission. The Athena rocket previously launched from Cape Canaveral, Kodiak and Vandenberg.
“Clearly we have been talking to [Lockheed Martin and ATK] for awhile now and are very close to arranging a deal with them for LC-46,” Space Florida President Frank DiBello said.
Lockheed and Alliant are restarting the Athena project to compete for light military satellite launches, a market currently dominated by Orbital Scinences Corporation's Minotaur rocket family that uses retired strategic missile components and SpaceX's Falcon 1E. More detials from Spaceflight Now, SpaceNews, and the Orlando Sentinel.
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