KYIV. Feb 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – U.S.-based Orbital ATK, the world’s leader in aerospace and defense industries, has signed an eight-year contract worth about $1.5 billion with NASA to implement from 2019 six commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station (ISS) using Antares carrier rockets created and produced in cooperation with Ukraine.
According to an official report from the company, within the framework of the contract signed after a tender, Orbital ATK for cargo flights to the ISS in addition to upgraded Antares carrier rockets could also use Atlas-5 carrier rockets of United Launch Alliance (the United States).
In addition, the contract includes an option for the execution in 2021-2024 of additional cargo flights “on the basis of operational requirements for the ISS.” The amount of the option is not specified.
According to a contract worth $1.9 billion between NASA and Orbital Science Corp., signed in 2008, the U.S. company should by the end of 2016 provide eight regular cargo flights to the ISS using Antares carrier rockets and the Cygnus spacecraft built in cooperation with Thales Alenia Space and deliver goods with a total weight of 20 tonnes. Ukraine’s Pivdenne design bureau and Pivdenmash (Dnipropetrovsk) in the framework of a long-term contract (up to 2019), signed with Orbital Science Corp. in 2008, provided the development and manufacture of the first stage of the Antares carrier rocket.
