Satellite News

Alliant Techsystems Inc. is looking to forge two new partnerships that will help it expand into new markets as it seeks to keep up with shifts in U.S. military and civilian space programs.

Best known as the supplier of solid-rocket boosters for the U.S. space shuttle fleet and the Air Force’s largest rockets, the Minneapolis-based company informed Thursday it is partnering with Lockheed Martin Corp. to get into a different business: helping upgrade and operate smaller, less expensive launchers designed to blast research and Pentagon satellites into orbit.

Finding ways to quickly launch smaller satellites, weighing between one and two tons, is a top priority for some U.S. government agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Demand for such launches is particularly strong because some established rocket systems used for smaller satellites are temporarily grounded or face technical issues.

According to several industry officials, Alliant also is in separate discussions with Orbital Sciences Corp. over possibly joining forces on a venture that would carry astronauts into orbit. That would allow it to potentially benefit from a White House initiative that seeks to outsource large portions of NASA’s traditional manned space efforts to private companies. The talks are still preliminary and it isn’t clear whether a formal teaming arrangement will be signed, these officials informed. But Alliant could provide at least one stage of a rocket for Orbital’s entry into the competition to ferry astronauts to the international space station. Orbital and Alliant declined to comment.

Both moves underscore changes roiling the U.S. aerospace industry. NASA is considering turning over to private companies all crew and cargo transportation to the international space station. Air Force brass also are looking for ways to more quickly build and launch smaller communications and surveillance satellites. These shifting government funding priorities are forcing large and small companies to look for ways to adapt.

Under a “strategic teaming arrangement” informed, Alliant will help integrate vehicle propulsion and launch Lockheed’s family of existing Athena rockets. First launched in 1995, Athena rockets have notched six successful launches and one 1999 failure to release a satellite into the proper orbit.

They offer “low-risk, reliable launch services at an affordable price,” informed John Karas, a senior Lockheed Martin official. One advantage is that four different government launch sites are suitable to launch Athena rockets.

For Alliant Techsystems, the agreement is part of a broader effort to reposition the company’s solid-rocket booster business in the face of the anticipated retirement of the space shuttles, probably in early 2011. Alliant already has had some layoffs at its Utah facilities and anticipates a significant drop in revenue under White House plans to kill NASA’s current Ares rocket programs.

In response, the company’s strategies include participating in commercially-developed programs such as Athena, originally conceived by other firms, at the same time it looks for ways to make its own programs more nimble.