Aerospace Merger: ATK Joins With Orbital Sciences Corp

FullBandwidth writes: "Two Virginia aerospace players, Arlington-based Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and Dulles-based Orbital Sciences, are merging to create a $5 billion venture. The companies announced the merger in a joint announcement Tuesday. ATK is also spinning off its lucrative hunting gear segment into a separate company. 'The move is mutually beneficial, company executives said, as ATK looks to bolster its aerospace business and Orbital Sciences hopes to boost the scale of its existing operations as well as gain a foothold in the defense sector. ... Another beneficiary of the merger is NASA, a client of both companies. Last year, Orbital successfully completed a supply run to the international space station using its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. Orbital’s expansion after the merger will make it a bigger player in the commercial space sector as it competes with the likes of SpaceX, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company, said Howard Rubel, an equity research analyst at Jefferies.'"

Comments

ATK

[Guppy]

FYI: ATK Launch Systems (formerly known as Thiokol) was the prime contractor for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, and as far as I know they mostly do solid-type rocket boosters -- which is what they are proposing for the (maybe) upcoming Space Launch System.

Re:ATK

[Anonymous Coward]

ATK needs to stick to missiles and stop fucking up human spaceflight with its dangerous and uncontrollable firecrackers.

I worked in engineering at Kennedy Space Center when the Challenger disaster occurred. I was
on site that day.

Thikol engineers actually cautioned against the launch of the shuttle due to the unusually cold ambient temperature
at the launch site.

It was NASA which made the final decision to launch, and the decision was made against the recommendations of
some NASA staff as well as engineers from Thikol. So the fault for the events which followed the launch
really lies with the NASA decision-makers who chose to take a risk using equipment in temperatures for
which that equipment was not designed. So it is unfair to malign Thiokol when the disaster would not have
happened if NASA had listened to Thiokol.

Re:ATK

[camperdave]

Thikol engineers actually cautioned against the launch of the shuttle due to the unusually cold ambient temperature at the launch site.

That doesn't excuse the design flaws inherent in the shuttle system. Solid rockets cannot be shut down or controlled. Once they're lit, they're lit. In the event of a catastrophe, the only way to control a solid rocket is to "unzip" it, explosive charges run the entire length of the rocket and spew it's flaming guts all over the place. The only safe place to be is in front of a solid, but even that isn't safe. When the Jupiter Direct launch system was being designed, the engineers discovered that the expanding fireball made of chunks of flaming solid fuel followed the same trajectory as the manned capsule would have, and would have melted or burned the parachutes on the capsule. On the shuttle, unzipping the SRBs would have burned into the external tank, and we all know what happens then.

Pretty reasonable merger

[Teancum]

1st of all, neither one of these companies is what would be called a major player in the space launch industry, even though both do get involved at a significant level. I would dare say both companies had a foot in the grave and could disappear if this merger didn't happen.

Also, neither company seems to be in direct competition with each other in terms of the various parts of the space launch areas that they have concentrated on. ATK is more into military sales (especially missiles and military munitions in general) and of course the solid rocket boosters, including the SRBs that the Space Shuttle used. Orbital has experience with liquid fueled rockets and working with commercial spaceflight customers in particular, including satellite construction (their main profit area). ATK has been losing its military business for some time, so they are in desperate need to change course and especially get into the commercial spaceflight area... something that obviously Orbital has a lot of experience in working with.

While this merger still shocks me that it is happening, I see huge benefits for both Orbital and ATK if this is completed. The combined company will definitely be in a position to challenge SpaceX in a number of ways and can definitely blow out of the water anything produced by United Launch Alliance (ULA). ATK has the raw capital and some substantial physical assets that could definitely build upon everything Orbital has been doing.