29 Facts About Orbital Sciences

Orbital Sciences Corporation was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other government customers.

In 2014, Orbital merged with Alliant Techsystems to create a new company called Orbital ATK, Inc, which in turn was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018.

Orbital Sciences was headquartered in Dulles, Virginia and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol ORB.

Orbital Sciences provided satellite subsystems and space-related technical services to government agencies and laboratories.

On 29 April 2014, Orbital Sciences announced that it would merge with Alliant Techsystems to create a new company called Orbital ATK, Inc The merger was completed on 9 February 2015 and Orbital Sciences ceased to exist as an independent entity.

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In 1985, Orbital Sciences procured its first contract for providing up to four transfer orbital stage vehicles to NASA.

In 1987, the seeds for the Orbcomm constellation were planted when Orbital Sciences began investigating a system using low Earth orbit satellites to collect data from remote locations.

In 1988, Orbital Sciences acquired Space Data Corporation in Arizona — one of the world's leading suppliers of suborbital rockets — thereby broadening its rocket business and manufacturing capabilities.

Shortly following the successful Pegasus launch, Orbital Sciences conducted an initial public offering in 1990 and began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

In 1994, Orbital Sciences successfully conducted the inaugural launch of the Taurus launch vehicle.

In 2006, Orbital Sciences conducted its 500th mission since the company's founding with products that included satellites, launch vehicles, and missile defense systems.

In 2007, the first interplanetary spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences, Dawn was launched on an eight-year, three-billion-mile journey to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Orbital Sciences used its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares launch vehicle to transport cargo to ISS following the success of Cygnus Orb-D1 and Cygnus CRS Orb-1.

Orbital Sciences Science made a number of strategic acquisitions in the 1990s and 2000s to strengthen its position in the satellite market.

In 1994, Orbital Sciences completed acquisition of Fairchild Industries' subsidiary Space and Defense Corporation, and merged the Fairchild Space business with its own satellite design and manufacturing division.

In 1997, Orbital Sciences acquired CTA, Inc, a company that, under the spacecraft design engineering and business leadership of Tom van der Heyden - designer of the GEOStar spacecraft - had designed and built the first geostationary "lightsat" under contract to Indonesia for Asia's first Direct Broadcast Satellite television broadcast program, and the world's first S-Band television broadcast satellite - providing an entry into the fast-growing Geosynchronous communications satellite market.

In 2010, Orbital Sciences acquired the Gilbert, Arizona-based satellite development and manufacturing unit from General Dynamics to complement its main satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia.

On 29 April 2014, Orbital Sciences announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Alliant Techsystems to combine Orbital and ATK's Aerospace and Defense Groups to create a US$4.

The Federal Trade Commission approved the acquisition with conditions on 5 June 2018, and one day later, Orbital Sciences ATK were absorbed and became Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.

Since the company's founding in 1982, Orbital Sciences has delivered 150 spacecraft to commercial, military and civil customers worldwide.

Orbital Sciences is a major provider of suborbital target and interceptor launch vehicles for the US missile defense systems.

In support of human space systems, Orbital Sciences is one of two companies providing commercial cargo resupply services to the ISS for NASA.

Orbital Sciences has developed the operational concept and completed the preliminary design for the air-launched rocket.

Orbital Sciences is a provider of low-Earth orbit communications satellites, having conceived, built and deployed the ORBCOMM network.

From 1994 -1999, Orbital Sciences built and deployed 35 satellites, and integrated five “gateway” ground stations and a network operations center to manage the satellites and process their data.

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Under a contract with Thales Alenia Space, Orbital Sciences is conducting integration and test services for Iridium NEXT, the next-generation satellite constellation of Iridium Communications Inc Orbital Sciences will integrate the communications payloads and platforms for 81 low-Earth orbit Iridium NEXT satellites and test the systems at its satellite manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona.

Orbital Sciences's hosted payload capabilities in national security systems include the Hosted Infrared Payload program for the US Air Force.

Orbital Sciences's hosted payload program takes advantage of the high frequency of commercial satellite launches and the excess resources that typically exist on a commercial communications satellite to provide frequent and low-cost access to space for National Security Systems.

Orbital Sciences is responsible for the program's overall systems engineering, and the development, production, test, and operations of the air-launch rocket and related ground operations, including payload and launch vehicle integration.