Ramona Adams
Orbital ATK is pursuing new opportunities for its Pegasus air-launch rocket with no plans to phase out the vehicle, Spaceflight Now reported Tuesday.
Stephen Clark writes company officials believe Pegasus will continue to perform missions beyond its June 2017 launch of NASA‘s Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite.
Orbital ATK entered a partnership with Vulcan Aerospace‘s Stratolaunch Systems subsidiary in October to deploy Pegasus rockets from the latter’s six-engine, twin-fuselage aircraft that is under development.
NASA is scheduled to select a new satellite mission for launch in 2020 and all three finalists of the competition are designed to fit Pegasus launchers, Clark reported.
Pegasus rockets performed six flights in the past 10 years and the launcher flew into orbit 28 times from 1996 to 2006.
