Interview with Bruce Ferguson: Early Development of the TOS Vehicle

Article

“Interview with Bruce Ferguson: Early Development of the TOS Vehicle,” Interviewer Unknown
Published in Quest Volume: 30 #2 (2023)

Abstract

Founded in 1982, three friends from the Harvard Business School decided to create the Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) in order to tap into a burgeoning commercial space marketplace.

Its first product was the Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS) upper stage, designed in partnership with Martin Marietta Denver Aerospace and in cooperation with NASA. TOS was an inertially-guided, three-axis controlled, solid propellant perigee stage. It was capable of placing 2,490 to 6,080 kg (5,500 to 13,400 lb) into geostationary orbit (GEO), delivering payloads into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), and spacecraft to planetary and other high-energy trajectories.

Along with its liquid bipropellant Apogee and Maneuvering Stage (AMS), which could be used alone or as an upper stage on TOS for higher energy missions, OSC used this project to build a reputation that enabled them over the next 35 years to expand into orbital launch, satellite manufacturing, and commercial satellite services. The firm was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2017 for more than $9 billion.

The following undated interview with one of OSC’s founders took place in late 1984/early 1985 and provides rare insight into the launch of the firm, the TOS project, and how they navigated the commercial space landscape at the time.

Citation

Ferguson, Bruce. “Interview with Bruce Ferguson: Early Development of the TOS Vehicle.” Interviewer Unknown. Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 30, no. 2 (2023): 27-44.