Insider Exclusive: ULA’s Tony Taliancich talks NASA’s EFT-1 and the Delta IV Heavy

SpaceFlight Insider's Jason Rhian sat down with United Launch Alliance's Tony Taliancich to find out more about the EFT-1 mission that his company will be sending aloft in December. Photo Credit: Mike Howard / SpaceFlight Insider

Jason Rhian

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — The biggest NASA mission of the year is about three months away from lifting off. SpaceFlight Insider conducted an exclusive interview with the company which is at the forefront of making it happen. Colorado-based United Launch Alliance’s (ULA ) Director of East Coast Launch Operations, Tony Taliancich, sat down with SpaceFlight Insider for a discussion about NASA’s Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission and the ULA Delta IV Heavy rocket that will carry it out come December 2014.

The Horizontal Integration Facility or “HIF” is the current residence of the massive trio of Common Booster Cores (CBCs) that will comprise this particular Delta IV Heavy. Located at Cape Canaveral Station, the structure resembles many of the hangars and buildings located at the Cape and the adjacent Kennedy Space Center – that is until you get inside. Looming over visitors are the three CBC’s which will used to start this mission on its way out of Earth’s atmosphere – and into the black.

Taliancich came in with his trademarked broad grin and welcomed SFI to the HIF. He relayed how, while the general flight of the Delta IV Heavy with EFT-1 might appear to be the same as the seven prior launches of the massive rocket – there would be some specific differences.

“There were some unique mission integration challenges as we went through the process of preparing the Delta IV Heavy for EFT-1,” Taliancich said. “However, overall, this is the same booster that we have launched in the past.”

Video courtesy of SpaceFlight Insider with elements provided by United Launch Alliance

The Delta IV Heavy is an expendable booster, the largest of the Delta IV family of launch vehicles. First taking to the skies in 2004, the Delta IV Heavy is currently the world’s highest capability rocket. The Heavy iteration of the Delta IV, is, in many ways, three rockets in one as it is comprised of three Delta IV CBCs. Much like the space shuttle’s Solid Rocket Boosters, these are jettisoned after they have expended their fuel and have done their part in p0wering massive payloads out of Earth’s gravity well (this normally takes place at a little more than four minutes into the flight).

Each Delta IV Heavy has a mass of some 1,615,988 lbs (733,000 kilograms) at liftoff. The normal version of the booster stands some 236 feet (72 meters) tall, 16 feet (five meters) in diameter and can send payloads weighing 63,470 lbs (28,790 kg) to low-Earth orbit and 31,350 lbs (14,220 kg) to a geostationary transfer orbit.

As noted, EFT-1 will see a flight test article of NASA’s new crew-rated spacecraft, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. ULA’s Delta IV Heavy will use its impressive capabilities to set the spacecraft on a two-orbit journey around the Earth. Orion will venture some 3,600 miles (5,794 kilometers) away from the planet. This is further than any other crew-rated spacecraft has traveled since the end of the Apollo era more than four decades ago.

Having completed these two circuits, Orion will then be directed to return home. It will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at the blistering speed of some 20,000 miles per hour (32,187 kilometers). This maiden voyage will mark Orion’s trial-by-fire and is meant to serve as the rebirth of U.S. deep space exploration efforts. For their part, NASA program managers have stated that this mission is important to the overall effort of having Orion become the spacecraft that the space agency will use to send crews to destinations such as an asteroid and Mars.

“We’re looking forward to testing our plan, our concept in space in December,” said Mark Geyer, NASA’s Orion Program Manager. “…I wouldn’t be anywhere else when the time comes around.”

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