Taurus-2 Set Back to May or June 2011

Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Scinces Corp. says a series of minor delays in development of the company’s new Taurus 2 rocket and its Cygnus space station cargo transporter will push the inaugural Taurus 2/Cygnus launch from hte Wallops Island, Va. Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport into May or June 2011 instead of the spring date earlier targeted, reports SpaceNews.

Orbital Chief Executive David W. Thompson said that Taurus 2 and Cygnus, which are the company’s two biggest development programs, nonetheless are moving forward without major roadblocks. But the schedules of both programs are now so tight that any further hiccups likely would delay the launch still further.

Earlier this month Orbital told reports that NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program is slated to conduct a single demonstration flight of its Taurus 2 rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule in about a year. The company would then fly eight cargo-delivery missions to the space station through 2015 under a separate $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract.

Thompson expects Taurus 2 to begin launching for other customers, including NASA’s Earth science program and the national security community, in 2013, possibly sooner.

Orbital has room on its Taurus 2 manifest to add two to three flights a year in addition to the space station resupply missions, said Ronald Grabe, executive vice president and general manager of Orbital’s Launch Systems Group.

The Taurus 2 includes a first-stage core design by Ukrainian rocket builders Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash, a first-stage engine built in Russia but modified by Aerojet of Sacramento, and a stage-two motor built by Alliant Techsystems of Minneapolis.

Orbital could develop a Cygnus variant capable of returning space station cargo safely to Earth within two years if asked to do so by NASA. The vehicle would have to be equipped with heat shielding and parachutes, and that the extra weight of those items would reduce by half the amount of cargo it could deliver to the space station.