SPACE reports that the Northrop Grumman NG-17 Cygnus “spacecraft successfully reboosted the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time, raising the orbiting lab to its normal operating altitude of around 250 miles above Earth.” The reboost “took place on Saturday (June 25) and marks the first time a Cygnus spacecraft has performed a full reboost procedure.” Cygnus “fired its gimbaled engine in order to raise the space station’s altitude by a tenth of a mile (0.16 kilometers) at apogee and a half a mile (0.8 km) at perigee.”
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Tag: ISS
NASA Purchases Five More Dragon Missions from SpaceX
Spaceflight Now reported that NASA “says it plans to buy five more crew rotation missions on SpaceX’s fleet of Dragon spaceships, bringing SpaceX’s contract with the space agency to 14 operational astronaut launches, likely enough to keep the International Space Station staffed through 2030.” SpaceX and The Boeing Company are to alternate NASA astronaut missions “every six months once the agency certifies Boeing’s Starliner capsule for the job.”
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Russia Launches Cargo Mission to ISS
SPACE reports that Russia launched the Progress 81 freighter “atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the local time was 2:32 p.m. in the afternoon.” Progress 81 “is carrying about three tons of food, propellant and equipment up to the International Space Station (ISS)” where it will dock at 9:02 a.m. EDT. NASA spokesperson Sandra Jones said, “It was a perfect launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.”
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Progress 81 Cargo Ship Launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome – June 3, 2022 (NASA via YouTube)
Starliner’s Docking at ISS Was Slightly Delayed
CNN reports that The Boeing Company’s Starliner spacecraft docked with the ISS “Friday night at 8:28 p.m. ET.” Starliner’s docking “occurred about an hour later than expected as ground crews worked through a few issues, including a software issue that skewed graphics, sort of like a misaligned GPS map.” The Starliner’s pop-out docking ring malfunctioned on its first docking attempt.
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Russia to Cease ISS Cooperation Over Sanctions
Business Insider reports that the “head of Russia’s space agency on Saturday said that the country would leave the International Space Station, which Moscow said is the result of economic sanctions imposed as a result of the country’s conflict in Ukraine.” In an interview with two Russian state news agencies — Tass and RIA Novosti — Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin reportedly said that “the decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly.” According to the article, NASA plans to continue running the space station through 2030.
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Crew-4 Astronauts Reach International Space Station
Aviation Week reports that the Crew-4 Dragon spacecraft “docked to the International Space Station (ISS) late April 27, delivering four U.S. and European astronauts to the orbiting laboratory.”
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Ax-1 Mission Crew Returns to Earth
Space.com reports that the Ax-1 mission’s four crewmembers returned to Earth Monday, successfully concluding “the first-ever all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.” The SpaceX crew capsule “carrying the four crewmembers … splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida” Monday at 1:06 p.m. EDT, “bringing the groundbreaking 17-day flight to a close.”
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Astronauts Complete Upgrades, Maintenance on ISS Exterior
Spaceflight Now reports that NASA astronaut Raja Chari and German astronaut Matthias Maurer “floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and installed refurbished ammonia jumpers in the lab’s cooling system to bring it back up to full efficiency, replaced a high-definition camera and made power and data connections on a European experiment platform.” Astronaut Kayla Barron reported water inside Maurer’s helmet at the end of the excursion. Once Maurer’s helmet was off, “the crew estimated up to 50 percent of the visor was coated with a thin film of water and that an absorption pad added to NASA helmets in the wake of the Parmitano incident was damp.”
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Progress Freighter Delivers Nearly 3 Tons of Supplies to ISS
SPACE reports that the Progress 80 cargo spacecraft “arrived at the International Space Station early Thursday morning (Feb. 17), delivering nearly 3 tons of supplies and equipment to the orbiting lab.” The cargo freighter docked with the Poisk module at 2:03 a.m. EST. Progress delivered “948 pounds (430 kg) of propellant, 89 pounds (40 kg) of nitrogen, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and 3,704 pounds (1,680 kg) of spare parts and other supplies.”
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NASA Could Take International Space Station Out of Orbit in January 2031
In an online report, Sky News (UK) says, “NASA has published plans for the future of the International Space Station which could see the 444,615kg structure taken out of orbit in January 2031 and crashed into a ‘spacecraft cemetery.’” The ISS “will continue operating until 2030 following a commitment made by President Biden and Vice President Harris last month, but its long-term future is unsustainable.” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the ISS has been “a beacon of peaceful international scientific collaboration” for more than 20 years, but by the end of this decade, all of its mission goals will have been completed. NASA “expects the future of space science collaboration to lie with commercially operated space platforms and has published a report about how it will be making this transition, including pulling the ISS out of the sky.”
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