Re: Atlas V Falters

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 03:02:04 -0000, in a place far, far away, Jake
McGuire <jamcguir@xxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

On Jun 16, 2:23 pm, simberg.interglo...@xxxxxxxxx (Rand Simberg)
wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:17:21 -0500, in a place far, far away, Damon
Hill <damon1S...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:



simberg.interglo...@xxxxxxxxx (Rand Simberg) wrote in
news:46ef51c5.1179129498@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:24:41 -0500, in a place far, far away, Damon
Hill <damon1S...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

simberg.interglo...@xxxxxxxxx (Rand Simberg) wrote in
news:46ee42d5.1175304859@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Is that an Atlas problem, or a Centaur problem?

Since the two stages are necessarily an inseparable launch
system, it's an Atlas problem, in the second stage.

I disagree, since the same stage has been used on other launchers.

Yes, but this still a system since Atlas V currently has no
other upper stage. It succeeds or fails as a system.

Still disagree. The Atlas has something called the Centaur as a
payload (which in turn had the satellites as a payload). The Atlas
succeeded in delivering the Centaur to its engine ignition point, per
spec. It was a Centaur failure, not an Atlas failure. After all, if
the Atlas is used to deliver crew module to a Bigelow facility, it's
not obvious that it will use a Centaur to do it. Similarly, if NASA
comes to its senses and gives up on the Stick, they might go with an
Atlas, but use a different upper stage (perhaps similar to the current
one planned for Ares, with the J-2 derivative).

You're behind the times, Rand. The "Atlas V" is a family of launch
vehicles, composed of the "Common Core Booster(tm)" and the "Centaur"
upper stage. There were also a bunch of ICBMs and booster stages
known as "Atlas", but those no longer exist.

I guess that's what it comes down to--whether or not LM considers the
Centaur part of the Atlas. If they do, it was an Atlas failure. If
not, it was a Centaur failure. Of course, either way, it was a LM
failure.
.

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