Spacelift Washington: NRO Funds Standardized Payload Interface

NRO Funds Standardized Payload Interface

WASHINGTON Aug. 18 – Standardization in satellite and payload interfaces between spacecraft and launch vehicles took a step forward this month in a project funded by the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The agency awarded a $300,000 contract to Boston-based AeroAstro Inc. for the design of a new standardized piggyback payload accommodation system.

The system that AeroAstro will design will make secondary payloads easier to mount inside such U.S. expendable launchers as Delta II, Delta IV, Atlas V, as well as foreign vehicles such as Ariane 5 and reusable launchers such as the NASA shuttles.

Called Universal Secondary Payload Interface (USPI), the system is designed primarily for small satellites on low budget space flight missions. The system uses standardized electrical connections between satellite and launcher, a standardized envelope, and a universal adapter to attach the payload package to the upper stage of the booster/launch vehicle.

AeroAstro said that it could combine the USPI envelope with their Sport upper stage system to be able to deliver the spacecraft to different types of orbits during the ascent period. SPORT is a rocket orbital transfer system. First customer for the SPORT delivery rocket is Arianespace, which is designing uses of SPORT for their Ariane 4 and 5 vehicle variants.

USPI and SPORT will give smaller satellite operators the capability to occupy unused space aboard launch vehicles and deliver their spacecraft to virtually any orbit regardless of the primary mission of the launch vehicle in use. The brokering of launch opportunities for small industry and scientific satellites that could not achieve manifesting as primaries or on more dedicated boosters would benefit from the service.

Years ago, a standardized payload system was created for satellites using the McDonnell Douglas Payload Assist Module (PAM), a all-solid fuel rocket that carried satellites from low earth orbits to GTO. PAMs were capable of launching on shuttles, Arianes, or Delta boosters. The move toward standardized launch infrastructure and commonality between launch service provider issues is a growing one inside the international space transportation community.

Looking ahead: While this week saw Titan IV and Ariane 4 launches, next week’s crucial test launch of the 3rd Delta III will carry more than its dummy satellite payload aboard. While the Delta IIIis an interim booster, many of its major subsystems are common to the coming Delta IV EELV. That family of launch vehicles will be Boeing’s primary launch products in the next decade. A major Delta III failure would not only threaten its own manifest, but the viability of Delta IV designs upon which the company has literally bet its Delta Launch Services division. It’s the future of the Delta IV that is the silent ‘secondary’ payload aboard the 3rd DIII mission.