Sometime after 2005, PlanetSpace reused the Athena III designation for a 2.8-million-pound-thrust shuttle-derived space station resupply booster rocket, in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The designation was later reused for a proposed rocket for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project. It was to add two, four or six Castor-4A strap-on boosters to the first stage of the stack, and would have been capable of launching 3.6 tons to low Earth orbit. It was never developed, because of the lack of customer interest. Such an integrated upper stage based on a 2531 lb Star 37FM was employed for the launch of Lunar Prospector, the first lunar probe launched by a commercially developed launch vehicle.Īthena III 1990s proposal Īn Athena III rocket was originally planned and designated the LLV-3 in the 1990s according to the original patent. Athena solid rocket motor provider Alliant Techsystems (ATK) produces integrated upper stages using spin-stabilized or 3-axis stabilized Star solid motors that can provide higher velocities for GEO and escape (e.g. After payload separation, the OAM performs a contamination and collision avoidance maneuver, distancing itself from the payload and burning any remaining fuel to depletion. This 1 meter (3.3 feet) long module is fueled with monopropellant hydrazine.

The OAM houses the attitude control system and avionics subsystem (guidance and navigation, batteries, telemetry transmitters, command and destruct receivers and antennas). For the September 28th, 2001 Athena launch, the OAM was built by General Dynamics Space Propulsion Systems of Redmond, WA. Primex was acquired by General Dynamics in 2001. The Athena rocket uses an Orbit Adjust Module (OAM) developed by Primex Technologies. For future flights, the Athena Ic and Athena IIc configurations would use Castor 30 stages instead of the Orbus 21D stages on the original versions. The Athena II has three stages, the Castor-120 first and second stages, and an ORBUS 21D upper stage. The Athena I has two stages, the Thiokol Castor-120 first stage and a Pratt & Whitney ORBUS 21D upper stage, both powered by solid-fuel. The Athena comes in two versions, Athena I and Athena II.

Athena rocket league