Expansive Space Transportation System To Be Demo’d By Orbital

January 19, 2008

Orbital Sciences Corporation [NYSE: ORB] has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to demo a new space transportation system for delivering cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). In a three-year, $320 million cooperative program, NASA will invest $170M/USD and Orbital will contribute $150M/USD (including its planned Taurus II launch vehicle development investment) in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) project. In its first phase, the COTS project will involve the development and flight demonstration of a commercial cargo delivery system to low Earth orbit, with the potential to support ISS operations following the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2010. This system will consist of a new advanced maneuvering spacecraft called Cygnus, and several interchangeable modules for pressurized and unpressurized cargo. All will be launched on Orbital’s new Taurus II medium-lift rocket.

Orbital’s COTS mission will take place in Q4 of 2010. Subject to NASA’s future requirements, Orbital will be prepared to carry out several follow-on operational COTS missions in 2011 and to conduct as many as eight operational ISS cargo flights a year by 2012 and 2013. The Cygnus spacecraft to be launched aboard the Taurus II rocket will be capable of delivering up to 2,300 kg of cargo to the ISS and will be able to return 1,200 kg of cargo from the ISS to Earth. The COTS project will provide NASA with a U.S.-produced and -operated automated cargo delivery service for ISS support, to complement Russian, European and Japanese cargo vehicles. In addition, the COTS project will help facilitate the introduction of Taurus II, a new medium-class launch vehicle that can be used by NASA and other government agencies and private-sector satellite operators for a variety of scientific, national defense and commercial space missions.

Orbital currently plans to carry out the development, production and integration of the Cygnus spacecraft and cargo modules at company facilities in Dulles, Virginia and Greenbelt, Maryland. The company’s design, manufacturing and testing activities related to the Taurus II rocket will be done in Dulles and Chandler, Arizona. Early COTS missions are planned to be launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, with integrated mission operations conducted from control centers in Dulles and Houston, Texas.