User:Ohms Law Bot/Cleanup/Athena (rocket)


 * Athena (rocket)

Athena was a Lockheed Martin expendable launch system which underwent several name changes in its lifetime. Development began at the Lockheed Corporation in 1993, where the design was known as the Lockheed Launch Vehicle. The name was changed to the Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle when Lockheed merged with Martin Marietta. Late in the program's life the name was finally changed to Athena, and all of the launches after the demonstration flight in August 1995 were conducted using that name.

Variants
The Athena comes in two versions, Athena I and Athena II. The Athena I has two stages, the Thiokol Castor-120 first stage and a Pratt & Whitney ORBUS 21D upper stage. The Athena II has three stages, the Castor-120 first and second stages, and an ORBUS 21D upper stage.

The Athena rocket uses an Orbit Adjust Module (OAM) developed by Primex Technologies. Primex was acquired by General Dynamics in 2001. For the September 28th, 2001 Athena launch, the OAM was built by General Dynamics Space Propulsion Systems of Redmond, WA. The OAM houses the attitude control system and avionics subsystem (guidance and navigation, batteries, telemetry transmitters, command and destruct receivers and antennas). This 1 meter (3.3 ft) long module is fueled with monopropellant hydrazine. After payload separation, the OAM performs a contamination and collision avoidance maneuver, distancing itself from the payload and burning any remaining fuel to depletion.

An Athena III rocket was planned, but never developed. It was to add two, four or six Castor-4A strap-on boosters to the stack.

Launches



 * DLV - The Demonstration Launch Vehicle (DLV) was launched in August 1995.
 * Lewis - An Athena I launched the NASA Lewis satellite on Aug. 22, 1997.
 * Lunar Prospector - An Athena II launched NASA's Lunar Prospector on Jan. 6, 1998.
 * ROCSAT-1 - An Athena I launched ROCSAT-1 for the Republic of China (Taiwan) on Jan. 26, 1999.
 * IKONOS-1 - An Athena II failed to launch IKONOS-1, a commercial earth observation satellite, on April 27, 1999. (Failed to orbit because the payload fairing did not separate properly.)
 * IKONOS-2 - An Athena II launched IKONOS-2, a commercial earth observation satellite, on Sept. 24, 1999.
 * Kodiak Star - An Athena launched Kodiak Star for NASA and the Space Test Program on Sept. 30, 2001.