Interorbital Systems: Разработка ракет и спутников в Калифорнии

Interorbital Systems (IOS) is an American company based in Mojave, California, that specializes in the manufacturing of rockets and satellites. It was established in 1996 by Roderick and Randa Milliron. As of October 2023, the company is in development stage for three orbital launch vehicles: NEPTUNE, TRITON, and TRITON HEAVY. and has provided suborbital commercial launch services. For Orbital launch they have used ISRO and Jaxa. Additionally, the company participated as a competitor in the Ansari X Prize and America's Space Prize competitions.

The NEPTUNE rocket, a two stage vehicle developed by Interorbital Systems, uses high performance liquid oxygen and densified propane propellants. Throttling of these engines allows for precise control of pitch, yaw, and roll during flight. The second stage of the NEPTUNE rocket is powered by a single stationary ablativelycooled liquid rocket engine that generates 3,000 pounds of thrust. During the second stage engine burn and while in orbit, pitch, yaw, and roll control are provided by cold gas thrusters.

The NEPTUNE liquid rocket engines of Interorbital Systems are fed propellants through a proprietary pressurant system. As a result, the weight of the propellant tank/pressurant system is equivalent to a traditional propellant tank/pressurant system/pump fed system. By removing the propellant pump and the associated heavy electric or gas generator pump drive system, Interorbital Systems has significantly reduced both the overall rocket development cost and the manufacturing time. This streamlined approach to the propulsion system has led to cost savings and improved efficiency in the manufacturing process.

All Interorbital Systems (IOS) rockets are launched from an ocean barge equipped with motion compensation technology. Initially, IOS plans to conduct orbital flights from the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles. In 2006, IOS held an active launch license from the Office of Commercial Space Transportation for Tachyon, a sounding rocket designed for suborbital flights reaching an apogee of 120 miles.

Solaris was a suborbital rocket design developed by IOS in the early 2000s. The intention behind the Solaris project was to compete for the Ansari X Prize. However, the rocket was not completed in time, and it was surpassed by Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, which successfully claimed the prize. achieving a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet. The payloads on board included two CubeSats, a payload from Synergy Moon, and a music CD titled "ENCLOSURE" by John Frusciante, former guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The CPM TV will be reused for future test flights, and all payloads were successfully recovered without damage.

Interorbital Systems became a member and launch provider for Team Synergy Moon in the Google Lunar X Prize competition in June 2016.