The Cygnus commercial resupply craft is installed
by the Canadarm2 to the Harmony node.
Image Credit: NASA TV
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The Cygnus cargo spacecraft is just a few feet away
from the International Space Station's Canadarm2.
Image Credit: NASA
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Cygnus approaches the International Space
Station.
Image Credit: NASA
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A week after its original approach date, Orbital Sciences’ commercial cargo
craft Cygnus has arrived at the International Space Station. The Expedition 37
crew captured Cygnus with the Canadarm2 at 7 a.m. EDT Sunday. Cygnus launched
Sept. 18 aboard an Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in
Virginia.
Orbital Sciences uploaded a software fix for a navigation data mismatch that
occurred during its approach Sept. 22. NASA managers opted to wait until after
Wednesday’s Soyuz launch and docking to restart capture and berthing
activities.
Cygnus was operating safely behind the space station by about 1,491 miles
while mission managers and ground controllers tested the software patch and
planned Sunday’s second approach attempt. Cygnus began a series of thruster
burns towards the orbital laboratory Thursday night after station managers gave
their final approval.
As Cygnus met its demonstration objectives and moved closer to the space
station, Expedition 37 Flight Engineers Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg watched
and worked in tandem with Mission Control. Parmitano was in the cupola at the
Canadarm2 controls monitoring its approach. Nyberg was his back up at the
secondary robotics workstation inside the Destiny laboratory.
When Cygnus met its final demonstration objective of pointing a tracking
laser at a reflector on the Kibo laboratory it moved to its capture point about
10 meters from the station. Cygnus turned off its thrusters, operated in free
drift, and Parmitano maneuvered the Canadarm2 to grapple and capture Cygnus.
Parmitano operated the Canadarm2 to move Cygnus and attached it to the
Harmony node at 8:44 a.m. The hatches to Cygnus will be opened Monday afternoon
after leak checks and power connections.
Orbital Sciences is the second company to send a commercial cargo craft to
the space station. SpaceX was the first company to send its own cargo ship with
two successful commercial resupply missions and two demonstration missions under
its belt.
Updated Cygnus Rendezvous Date, NASA TV Coverage for
Orbital Sciences' Demonstration Mission to International Space Station
NASA and its International Space Station partners have approved a Sunday,
Sept. 29, target arrival of Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft on its
demonstration cargo resupply mission to the space station.
NASA Television coverage of the rendezvous will begin at 4:30 a.m. EDT and
will continue through the capture and installation of the Cygnus spacecraft. For
the latest schedule for spacecraft capture and installation, as well as the
post-berthing news conference, visit:
Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., launched the Cygnus spacecraft on the
company's Antares rocket Sept. 18 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport
Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
International Space Station Expedition 37 crew members Karen Nyberg of NASA
and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will capture the spacecraft
using the space station's robotic arm. They then will install Cygnus on the
bottom of the station's Harmony module.
Cygnus will deliver about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including
student experiments, food and clothing, to the space station. Future Cygnus
flights will ensure a robust national capability to deliver critical science
research to orbit, significantly increasing NASA's ability to conduct new
science investigations to the only laboratory in microgravity.
Cygnus had been scheduled for a rendezvous with the space station on Sept.
22. Due to a data format mismatch, the first rendezvous attempt was postponed.
Orbital has since updated and tested a software patch. Cygnus' arrival also was
postponed pending the Sept. 25 arrival of the Expedition 37 crew. Flight
Engineer Michael Hopkins of NASA and Soyuz Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight
Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos)
arrived at the space station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft at 10:45 p.m.
Wednesday.
The updated Sunday rendezvous and approach will include originally planned
tests to validate Cygnus' performance as it approaches the space station.
Orbital built, and is testing, Cygnus under NASA’s Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services (COTS) Program. The successful completion of the COTS
demonstration mission will pave the way for Orbital to conduct eight planned
cargo resupply flights to the space station through NASA’s $1.9 billion
Commercial Resupply Services contract with the company.
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
For more information about the mission and the International Space Station,
visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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