The S.S. Rick Husband approaches the capture position below the International Space Station. Photo Credit: NASA
After three days of travel to the International Space Station, the fifth Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft to visit the outpost was captured and berthed to the station early Saturday morning, March 26, delivering 7,756 pounds (3,518 kilograms) of food, supplies, and experiments. Once the spacecraft was about 33 feet (10 meters) below the station, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, the commander of the orbiting laboratory, took control of the space station’s robotic arm to move in and grab the free-flying Cygnus. Capture took place at 5:51 a.m. CDT (10:51 GMT) when the cargo freighter and ISS were about 250 miles (402 kilometers) over the south Indian Ocean. “We’re really honored to bring aboard the S.S. Rick Husband to the International Space Station,” said Kopra. “It recognizes a personal hero of so many of us and this will be the first Cygnus honoree who was directly involved with the construction of this great station.”
Tim Kopra and Tim Peake work in the Cupola module to grab the free-flying Cygnus from space. Photo Credit: NASA
After capture, ground teams spent the next two hours maneuvering the spacecraft to just below the Unity module of the orbiting lab. Once Cygnus was only inches away from the Earth-facing Common Berthing Mechanism, fine-tuning of the alignment began. Getting the spacecraft below the CBM into the Ready To Latch position took a little longer than usual. Ground teams told the crew that because the robotic arm was fully stretched out, the procedure had to take place a little slower. During final RTL alignments, the space station’s ground track took it away from video downlink. This caused the operators on the ground controlling the robotic arm to pause for about 30 minutes. About an hour behind the timeline, berthing finally took place at 9:52 a.m. CDT (14:52 GMT) while the station was flying over the Pacific Ocean just west of Mexico. The hatch between the station and Cygnus was opened the next day on Sunday. The crew will now begin the long process of unloading the thousands of pounds of cargo on board the spacecraft.
File photo of the Previous Cygnus berthed. This photo was taken during a space walk earlier in the year. Photo Credit: NASA
“As we accomplish our fifth Cygnus berthing to the ISS, we celebrate the completion of a primary mission objective for OA-6,” said Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group via a company-issued release. “Our flexible Cygnus spacecraft has a lot of work left to do. Following its stay at the ISS, and for the first time, we will undertake three experiments [on board] the unmanned spacecraft.” The vehicle is expected to remain attached to ISS for about two months (55 days) before being loaded with trash and unberthed on May 20. After departing the vicinity of the outpost, Cygnus will remain in orbit for eight more days to conduct the Saffire experiment. Saffire will help scientists and engineers understand how fires spread in large areas on certain materials. Cygnus was the first of three planned cargo ship arrivals in the next two weeks. A new Russian Progress spacecraft will launch on March 31 and is scheduled to dock on April 2. Then a SpaceX Dragon will fly atop a “full thrust” Falcon 9 on April 8, before being berthed to the Harmony module on April 10. Together, some 12 tons (10.8 metric tons) of cargo will be delivered in arguably the busiest time in the space station program’s history.
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 ATKCygnus 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
The view of the main pressurized modules of ISS from
the astronauts during US EVA-35. Credit: NASA
Welcome to 2016. I know it is already February. It has been a busy last couple of months. I plan to expand the website this year, and get into better posting habits. But for now, here is my outlook on what to expect at our favorite palace in space. This year, the International Space Station turns 16 years old—at least some of the pieces. This was the year that ISS program was originally supposed to end. In 2010, all five space station partner agencies decided to delay that to 2020. Even now, talks are underway to continue the life of the outpost to 2024. Had the decision held to end the program, it is arguable that the burgeoning commercial cargo and crew industries would still be a decade or more away. Instead, today, active private cargo ships are routinely delivering supplies to the station. Next year, commercial crews will begin visiting the outpost. This year, Bigelow Aerospace, a company that develops expandable space habitats, will have it's first module attached to the ISS, and there are talks of a private airlock being added to ISS by 2018. Instead of planning for the disposal the 400 ton satellite into the Pacific Ocean this year, mission planners are busy working on "traffic jams" of visiting vehicles constantly coming and going to and from the station. They do this all while working on training for more than a half-dozen spacewalks. This year promises to be one of the busiest at the outpost. Starting in March, the first of up to five SpaceX Dragon cargo ships will be launched to resupply the orbiting lab. Commercial Resupply Service 8 will be a return to flight for SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship after a launch mishap in June of last year during the CRS-7 mission. The company already returned the Falcon 9 booster to flight in December.
BEAM seen attached to Tranquility's aft port. Photo Credit: NASA
CRS-8 will haul with it the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM). Once the capsule berths to the Harmony node, the BEAM will then be pulled out of the "trunk" of Dragon by the space station's robotic arm and be attached to the aft port of the Tranquility module. BEAM is a small test module that will study the structural integrity, leakage, radiation exposure and more, during its two year stay on the outpost. Afterwords, it will be removed and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere. Bigelow Aerospace intends to use a similar design for an airlock on it's eventual private space stations sometime in the 2020s. SpaceX will launch International Docking Adapter 2 in March on CRS-9. This will be attached to Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 on forward end of Harmony. IDA-1 was originally supposed to be attached there, however, it was lost during CRS-7. A replacement, IDA-3, will be launched on a future SpaceX Dragon flight. It will be attached to PMA-3. To prepare for that, it will be moved from it's current location (port side of Tranquility) to the zenith port of Harmony.
Cygnus OA-4 as seen from the ISS crew below the station moments before being captured by the space stations robotic arm. Photo Credit NASA
The other company delivering cargo, Orbital ATK, recently returned it's Cygnus cargo ship to flight. This year, the company plans to launch three times. As early as late May, the OA-5 Cygnus mission should see the return to flight of the Antares rocket, which exploded shortly after liftoff in October 2014. If the schedule holds, SpaceX and Orbital ATK should both have cargo ships berthed to the space station at the same time in late spring or early summer. While commercial resupply is poised to have it's biggest year yet, the Russian's plan to continue their steady supply of Progress spacecraft. Three are scheduled to launch this year - all of which are of the new modernized MS variant. Additionally, Japan will launch it's HTV-6 cargo ship in October. In all, up to 12 resupply ships could reach the station in 2016. In March, the first one-year crew members on the ISS are scheduled to return to Earth. Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko launched in late March 2015 and are scheduled to return to Earth on March 3, 2016. Also leaving with them will be Sergey Volkov, who launched in September 2015. Launching a couple of weeks later, Soyuz TMA-20M will take Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka as well as NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams. They will stay aboard as part of Expedition 47 and 48 and return to Earth in September. This will put Williams about 14 days ahead of Kelly as the most experienced U.S. astronaut with a cumulative 534 days over four missions.
A new Soyuz model, called MS, will replace the TMA-M series currently serving the space station. Photo Credit: NASA
Following the departure of TMA-19M in June with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and astronauts Timothy Peake and Timothy Kopra of ESA and NASA respectively, Expedition 48 will begin. Joining the expedition a couple weeks later will be the crew of a brand new Soyuz: Soyuz MS-1. Aboard will be NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. They will stay in space till November. Launching on Soyuz MS-2 in September to be part of Expedition 49 will be NASA astronaut Robert Kimbrough and Russian cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov. They will land in March 2017. Finally, in November, the 50th expedition to the orbiting outpost will launch. Soyuz MS-3 will carry NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and French astronaut Tomas Pesquet. They will stay in space till May 2017. So far in 2016, the ISS has seen one extravehicular activity. US EVA-35 saw astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake step outside to fix a failed power regulator. The Sequential Shunt Unit, as it is called, failed in November and needed to be replaced at the earliest convenience. The SSU was fixed, and other tasks completed as well, however, only a few hours into the spacewalk, water was discovered in Kopra's helmet forcing a "termination" of the EVA. The suit will be evaluated before used further. This month, the ISS should see a Russian EVA, as well as the departure of the Cygnus currently berthed at the Earth facing port of Node 1.
A highlight video of EVA-35, which occurred on Jan. 15.
