Tag: ISS

Cygnus Reaches ISS

Aviation Week reports that Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo capsule “rendezvoused with the International Space Station early Aug. 12, where it was grappled using Canada’s 58-ft.-long robot arm and berthed to the seven-person orbital lab’s U.S. segment Unity module.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Russian Module Misfire on ISS More Serious Than First Stated

SPACE reports that NASA’s Flight Director at mission control in Houston during the Nauka docking, Zebulon Scoville, said that the ISS tilted more severely than the reported 45 degrees. Scoville said that Nauka caused the station to spin “one-and-a-half revolutions – about 540 degrees – before coming to a stop upside down. The space station then did a 180-degree forward flip to get back to its original orientation.” NASA representatives confirmed Monday that Scoville’s account is accurate.
Full Story (SPACE)

Cygnus Resupply Mission to Launch to ISS August 10

ExecutiveGov reported that Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to lift off atop an Antares rocket August 10 for a mission to the International Space Station. The spacecraft will “deliver another batch of NASA’s science investigations, supplies and equipment to” the ISS. The mission “will support research on 3D printing in space, the behavior of slime molds in microgravity, a spacecraft thermal protection system and a carbon dioxide removal technology.”
Full Story (ExecutiveGov)

SpaceX Cargo Dragon Undocks from ISS

SPACE reports that at 10:40 a.m. EDT Thursday, SpaceX’s CRS-22 Cargo Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station’s Harmony module. NASA officials said that the spacecraft is expected to land off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, on Friday at 11:30 p.m. EDT. Experiments from the cargo spacecraft “will be sent back to NASA’s Space Station Processing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to minimize the effects of gravity on the samples,” according to a NASA press release. The ship, “carrying 5,000 lbs. (roughly 2,265 kilograms) of equipment, experiments and other things, was supposed to depart the station on Tuesday (July 6) and then Wednesday (July 7), but continued high winds and dangerous conditions from” Tropical Storm Elsa caused the undocking to be delayed.
Full Story (SPACE)

Roscosmos Chief Says Russia Will Withdraw from ISS in 2025 if Sanctions Aren’t Lifted

Reuters reports that on Monday, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin “suggested Moscow would withdraw from the International Space Station in 2025 unless Washington lifted sanctions on the space sector that were hampering Russian satellite launches.” The sanctions prevent Russia from importing “certain microchip sets needed for its space” program. Rogozin said, “We have spacecraft that are nearly assembled but they lack one specific microchip set that we have no way of purchasing because of the sanctions. … This is in the hands of our American partners.”
Full Story (Reuters)

NASA Administrator to Speak With Roscosmos Counterpart Friday On Future of ISS

The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano “on Friday will exit the confines of the International Space Station for the first of four spacewalks to fix a vital piece of hardware that was not designed to be repaired in space.” The astronauts will repair part of a failed cooling system on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). On Tuesday, NASA officials indicated that “the technical challenges of the mission…rival those of any previous spacewalk, including the Hubble Space Telescope between 1993 and 2009.” NASA program manager Ken Bollweg said, “When they get into this area behind the debris shield, they’re very constrained, they’ll get in there with their hands but then their head, their shoulders, the rest of the suit, the work station, everything is interfering with what they’re doing within that tiny space.”
Full Story (Houston Chronicle)

Russian Progress Cargo Ship Docks With ISS

SPACE reports that the Russian Progress MS-16 cargo ship docked safely at the International Space Station Wednesday, bringing “new research experiments, crew supplies (such as clothing and food), fresh water, nitrogen gas and propellant for the station’s Zvezda service module propulsion system,” among other cargo. When it leaves the station, Progress “will remain connected to Pirs and pull the entire docking compartment away from the ISS for a planned destruction in Earth’s atmosphere.” The move will come “just days after the launch of the ‘Nauka’ multipurpose laboratory module,” which will dock at the port vacated by Pirs.
Full Story (SPACE)

SpaceX Pushes Launch of NRO Satellite Atop Falcon 9 Rocket to Saturday

Spaceflight Now reports that on Thursday, SpaceX scrubbed the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket “to evaluate a ‘slightly high’ pressure reading in the rocket’s upper stage liquid oxygen tank.” A “sensor reading on the Falcon 9’s upper stage triggered an ‘auto-abort’ at T-minus 1 minute, 53 seconds, as SpaceX counted down to a planned liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center at 9:45 a.m. EST (1445 GMT) Thursday.” The mission to deliver a National Reconnaissance Office payload to orbit is now scheduled to launch Saturday morning.
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)