General Dynamics Plans to Build 18 Atlas Rockets
General Dynamics Corp. will try to breathe new life into its 30-year-old Atlas-Centaur rocket program by building 18 of the launch vehicles for sale to commercial and government customers, the company said Monday.
The company-funded program, which could generate more than $1 billion in revenue, ranks as one of the nation’s largest commercial space programs, according to industry analysts. The first commercially available rocket is expected to be launched in mid-1989.
“We fully intend to remain as the leader in the commercial launch business,” said Alan M. Lovelace, general manager of General Dynamics’ Space Systems Division, who made the announcement at the Paris Air Show. The division is based in San Diego.
Nearly 500 Atlas and Centaur rockets built by the company in the past were earmarked for sale to the military and to government agencies. However, NASA’s last Atlas-Centaur vehicle is being readied for launch later this year at Cape Canaveral, Fla., with no future orders in sight.
The company has been building Atlas rockets for 31 years. The first Atlas took off from Cape Canaveral on June 11, 1957. The first Centaur rocket, a second-stage launch vehicle that sits atop an Atlas rocket, was launched 25 years ago.
The proposed commercial program will not increase employment at the Space Systems Division, which has about 2,800 employees.
General Dynamics has no firm orders for the 18 rockets but the company expects to announce “contracts to launch commercial spacecraft in the near future,” according to spokesman J. F. Isabel. Several potential customers, including the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization, have made “reservations” for rockets, Isabel said.
Draws Praise
The Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle will compete with a handful of other commercially available rockets manufactured by Martin Marietta, McDonnell Douglas and the European Arianespace group. General Dynamics is competing for the right to launch about 50 satellites that are planned by various commercial and government entities.
The commercial development program drew praise from industry analysts.
“Obviously, they are going to invest corporate funds in these things but, given the backlog of satellites that people want to put up, it’s probably a good bet,” said John Simon, a Los Angeles-based analyst with Seidler Amdec Securities.
The market for commercial rockets was bolstered last year when President Reagan, reacting in part to the explosion and crash of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger, banned commercial satellites from future shuttle flights.
Customer Cost
General Dynamics expects to charge customers about $59 million to build an Atlas-Centaur rocket, attach the satellite to the rocket, and launch it into orbit, Isabel said.
The company will spend about $100 million to improve existing manufacturing facilities and to develop a cowling, or covering, to protect some of the larger communications satellites that have been proposed by some potential customers.
The rockets designed for commercial use will be built in the same plants that have produced the earlier Atlas and Centaur rockets. General Dynamics, which plans to launch the rockets from NASA facilities at Cape Canaveral, is offering a “guaranteed reflight, at no additional cost,” if a rocket fails.
