History
Orbital was founded in 1982 by David Thompson, Bruce Ferguson and Scott Webster. In 1990, the company successfully carried out eight space missions, highlighted by the initial launch of the Pegasus rocket. In 2006 Orbital conducted its 500th mission since the company’s founding.
In 1997 it spun off its space imaging division Orbital Space Imaging or ORBIMAGE (with Thompson then as chairman). It is now GeoEye.
On March 4, 2010 Orbital Sciences announced it was acquiring General Dynamics Advanced Information System's Satellite division, which was formerly Spectrum Astro. The purchase price was $55 million and the deal was closed on 2 April 2010. Orbital Sciences stated the deal added nearly $70 million in revenue and slightly improved 2010 earnings, and expects the business to add approximately $100 million in revenue in 2011. Approximately 325 employees of the General Dynamics division and the Gilbert, AZ campus of the General Dynamics division were retained.
In 2010, Orbital made a commercial proposal to NASA to develop a lifting-body spaceplane vehicle, about one-quarter the size of the Space Shuttle, in response to NASA's Commercial Crew Development phase 2 solicitation. The Vertical Takeoff, Horizontal Landing (VTHL) vehicle would be launched on a human-rated (upgraded) Atlas V rocket but would land on a runway. The proposed spaceplane would seat four astronauts. NASA expected to make approximately $200 million of phase 2 awards by March 2011, for technology development projects that could last up to 14 months. Failing to be selected for an CCDev phase 2 award by NASA, Orbital announced in April 2011 that they will likely wind down their efforts to develop a commercial crew vehicle.
Read more about this topic: Orbital Sciences Corporation
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