Cygnus cargo ship heading to International Space Station

The Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft launches atop a United Launch Alliance
Atlas V rocket from Florida. Caption and Photo Credit: NASA TV

The fifth Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship blasted into orbit atop an Atlas V rocket on Tuesday evening on a path to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station during the early morning hours of March 26.

This spacecraft, dubbed S.S. Rick Husband, is carrying 7,756 pounds (3,518 kilograms) of cargo bound for the orbiting outpost. It was launched at 11:05 p.m. EDT into near perfect weather conditions on March 22 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41. The Atlas V rocket was in the 401 configuration: a four meter faring, zero solid rocket boosters and a single engine Centaur upper stage.

Video courtesy of NASA TV

Flying with the thousands of pounds of food, supplies and equipment is the Saffire-1 experiment. It's goal is to test the spread of fire on certain materials. The setup is contained in it's own compartment and will only be tested once the cargo ship safely leaves the ISS some 55 days from now. It will be the largest purposely-set fire in space. The goal is to understand the spread of flames in microgravity.

Two more Saffire experiments will fly on subsequent Cygnus cargo ships.

Cygnus will arrive at the ISS on the morning of March 26. NASA TV will cover the rendezvous and berthing operations live at 5:30 a.m. EDT.

A file photo of the previous Cygnus to visit the International Space Station.
Photo Credit: NASA

New directions for my life

An Atlas V 551 launches with the Navy's fourth Mobile User

 Objective System on Sept. 2, 2015. Photo by me!

This won't be one of my usual blog posts. It's more of a status update for what has been going on in my life.

I am a college student studying mass media at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. School is in full swing at the moment and, while I'm trying to insure that I get decent grades, I am a managing editor for the school newspaper, the Washburn Review.

These two things, alone, take up the vast majority of my time. I have been studying and running a student newspaper. But, I haven't forgotten about this blog. I still believe there should be a source for all things International Space Station.

It gets more complicated though. Right when school started, I got selected by the United Launch Alliance to go down to Florida to be part of their ULASocial to view the launch of an Atlas V 551 rocket. The rocket was launching the fourth Mobile User Objective System for the U.S. Navy.

Because the Atlas V launch was during

 twilight before dawn, the conditions

 were just right for this beautiful contrail

 formation to occur. Photo by me!

While I was down there I met Jason Rhian, who is the founder of SpaceFlight Insider. He offered me a freelance writing gig. Since then I have written seven articles for them.

So now I am doing school, running a student newspaper and writing (as well as editing) for SpaceFlight Insider. I am extremely busy. But I still have a strong passion for ISS and I plan to keep going strong on the blogs and the videos.

Because I have been getting into the role of a managing editor for the Washburn Review, I have had literally zero time for making videos about the history of ISS. I have notes for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, but no script. As it is fall break, I anticipate that I will have a little bit more time to work on the videos.

In the mean time, I do plan on posting more blog entry's here. I will be focusing more on the science going onboard ISS, and, when I post something on SpaceFlight Insider, I will repost them here.

I hope you all understand and will continue to read this blog. Please follow this blog and tell your friends and, as always, if you or someone you know is interesting in helping, email me.

Ad Astra!

A writer's job never stops. While I was in Florida waiting for the Atlas V to launch,
I still had to help my team in Kansas finish production of the weekly newspaper!
Photo courtesy of Reuben Worthington