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Antares Launch
Just looking at info for today's Antares launch.
As a short background, Orbital ATK's Antares 1st stage is from the Russian company that makes the Zenit, and it uses a pair of Energomash designed RD-181's. 2nd stage is a solid Castor 30 series, IIRC. That's where it's interesting. Falcon 9 has a quick staging process, as did the Saturns, etc. The Antares has a 43 second coast phase where it will drop interstages, fairings, etc. before the Castor lights. That reminds me of a lot of sounding rocket flight profiles. I wonder if it has anything to do with the hot rod RD-181's. They are way more than the Antares needs and have been used at a partial throttle setting to keep from over stressing the airframe. Was the flight profile the same with the old AJ26 (Russian NK-33)?
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