Cygnus NG-12 (CRS-12), ELaNa 25A, +... – Antares-230+ – MARS LP-0A – 02.11.2019, 13:59:47 UTC

Автор tnt22, 11.09.2019 14:35:27

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tnt22

Предварительный прогноз погоды по полигону на дату пуска:

Солнечно, без осадков, ночью +6° C, днём - до +15° C
 

tnt22

ЦитироватьISS National Lab Research Overview, Northrop Grumman CRS-12

 ISS National Lab

28 окт. 2019 г.

More than 20 separate payloads sponsored by the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory will launch to the orbiting laboratory on Northrop Grumman's 12th commercial resupply services mission. This will mark the largest number of ISS National Lab-sponsored payloads on a Northrop Grumman resupply mission to date. The payloads launching on the Cygnus vehicle include investigations from a wide variety of private-sector companies seeking to leverage the unique environment of the ISS National Lab to enhance products and therapies on Earth. The launch is slated for no earlier than November 2 at 9:59 a.m. EST from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlIns0X3quMhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/AlIns0X3quM (3:06)

tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/29/upgraded-antares-rocket-rolled-out-for-launch-on-space-station-resupply-mission/
ЦитироватьUpgraded Antares rocket rolled out for launch on space station resupply mission
October 29, 2019 | Stephen Clark


A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket rolled out to pad 0A Tuesday at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket rolled out to its launch pad on Virginia's Eastern Shore early Tuesday, setting the stage for liftoff Saturday on a resupply flight to the International Space Station that will debut an upgraded launcher and Cygnus cargo vehicle capable of hauling heavier payloads into orbit.

Northrop Grumman's next cargo delivery flight to the space station, designated NG-12, is the first in the company's follow-on Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract with NASA. It follows 11 resupply launches under a previous CRS contract.

Riding a self-propelled transporter, the two-stage Antares rocket emerged fr om its Horizontal Integration Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, around sunrise Tuesday to begin the mile-long journey to pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a facility run by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.

After guiding the Antares rocket up the ramp at pad 0A, ground teams engaged a hydraulic lift to raise the 139-foot-tall (42.5-meter) rocket vertical later Tuesday to begin a series of preflight checks.

A combined systems test is planned Wednesday morning to verify interfaces between the Antares rocket, the Cygnus cargo carrier and the NASA-operated range at Wallops, according to Kurt Eberly, Northrop Grumman's vice president of the Antares program.

Workers will then lower the Antares rocket back to a horizontal position and position a mobile clean room over the top of the launcher's payload shroud. Technicians will open the top of the fairing to access the forward hatch of the Cygnus spacecraft for loading of time-sensitive cargo and experiments Friday morning.

The Antares team will close the Cygnus hatch, re-install the top of the Antares payload fairing, and raise the rocket vertical again late Friday in time to commence the five-hour launch countdown at 4:59 a.m. EDT (0859 GMT) Saturday, Eberly said.

The launch team will oversee final activation, readiness checks and filling of the Antares rocket's first stage with kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants before liftoff at 9:59 a.m. EDT (1359 GMT) Saturday, roughly the moment that Earth's rotation brings the Wallops launch site under the International Space Station's ground track.


The Antares rocket's twin RD-181 first stage engines are visible in this photo taken during Tuesday's rollout at Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Saturday's scheduled launch will mark the 11th flight of an Antares rocket since 2013, and sixth to fly in the Antares 230 configuration with two Russian-made RD-181 main engines, which replaced the AJ26 first stage engines used on first five Antares missions.

The AJ26s were modified decades-old NK-33 engines originally developed for the ill-fated Soviet-era N1 moon rocket, then kept in storage until their import to the United States in the 1990s. Investigators traced the cause of a dramatic Antares rocket explosion during a 2014 launch to an AJ26 engine, and officials from Orbital Sciences — now part of Northrop Grumman — elected to purchase newly-built RD-181 engines for future Antares flights.

The Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, both owned and developed by Northrop Grumman, sport several upgrades debuting on Saturday's flight.

The twin RD-181 engines on the Antares first stage will be able to fly at full throttle through the period of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the rocket, a phase of flight called Max-Q.

"On the last five flights with what we call the 230 configuration we throttled down at Max-Q for about 18 to 20 seconds, and starting with NG-12, we're going to plan to fly at a 100 percent throttle setting throughout the first stage burn until we hit the maximum g-force lim it, and then we throttle down at that point," Eberly said Tuesday in an interview with Spaceflight Now.

The higher throttle setting is possible thanks to modifications to strengthen the Antares rocket's first stage structure, which is made by Yuzhmash in Ukraine.

Eberly said Northrop Grumman also improved the "mass fraction" of the Antares first and second stages by removing unnecessary insulation, structures and pressurization systems. He said engineers also redesigned the Antares launch trajectory beginning with NG-12 to deliver the Cygnus cargo craft into a slightly lower orbit, an altitude difference the Cygnus will make up using its own engines.

The NG-12 mission is set to deliver some 8,200 pounds of supplies and experiments to the space station, nearly 10 percent more than the previous Antares/Cygnus flight. The cargo tally will set a new record for the heaviest payload launched by a commercial U.S. resupply ship.


The 139-foot-tall (42.5-meter) Antares rocket stands vertical on pad 0A Tuesday at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

After separation from the Antares rocket's solid-fueled, U.S.-built second stage, the Cygnus spacecraft will unfurl its two fan-shaped solar arrays and begin maneuvers to set up for an automated rendezvous with the space station. The Cygnus supply ship will arrive at the station Monday, Nov. 4, assuming an on-time launch Saturday.

Under manual control by an astronaut, the space station's Canadian-built robotic arm will capture the Cygnus spacecraft and berth it to a port on the orbiting lab's Unity module to begin a stay scheduled to last more than two months.

Like the Antares, the Cygnus spacecraft set for launch Saturday features upgrades, said Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's space systems sector.

"Over time, we're continually upgrading the system, not only to add more cargo but to add more capability to the spacecraft," DeMauro told Spaceflight Now. "For CRS-2, I think the best way to describe it is we're taking a step function up and even further increasing our focus on our ability to support science to the ISS."

The Cygnus spacecraft for the NG-12 mission will launch with 10 mid-deck lockers for stowage and experiments, and six of the lockers will be powered throughout the flight to the space station. That's an improvement from six lockers — and four powered lockers — on the NG-11 mission.

"Primarily, that's the cargo that gets loaded in the final load because it's the science that gets delivered to the ISS for the crew to run the experiments on," DeMauro said.

The Cygnus spacecraft launching Saturday also carries additional communications and telemetry equipment to connect scientists with their experiments throughout the mission, from liftoff through arrival at the space station. In the past, scientists would be unable to communicate with their experiments until they were unloaded and connected inside the station.

Northrop Grumman and NASA have also established new life science laboratories close to the Wallops launch site, DeMauro said.

In another first for Cygnus, the NG-12 mission will dispose of two decommissioned experiments mounted outside the space station, a role previously reserve for SpaceX's Dragon and Japan's HTV cargo vehicles.

The Cygnus spacecraft will depart the space station in January with NASA's Space Debris Sensor, an experiment that failed soon after its installation on the orbiting complex in 2018, and the European Space Agency's SOLAR instrument, which monitored the sun's output for more than nine years.

The two experiment packages will burn up during re-entry with the Cygnus spacecraft, once the Cygnus completes a series of CubeSat deployments after flying away from the station.

"That really helps NASA on the logistics side, cleaning out the disposal cargo from outside the ISS in additional to the critical role we play in getting rid of the disposal cargo from inside the ISS," DeMauro said.

Northrop Grumman has named the next Cygnus spacecraft the "S.S. Alan Bean" after the Apollo and Skylab astronaut who died last year.


The NG-11 Cygnus cargo freighter departed the International Space Station on Aug. 6 to begin an extended mission. Credit: NASA

The Cygnus spacecraft from Northrop Grumman's previous cargo flight, NG-11, has remained in orbit since leaving the space station Aug. 6 to begin an extended technology demonstration mission.

After Saturday's launch, Northrop Grumman will operate two Cygnus vehicles in space at the same time. DeMauro said the company wants to demonstrate the dual-operations capability before deorbiting the NG-11 Cygnus to burn up during re-entry in the atmosphere.

The NG-11 Cygnus deployed several CubeSats in August, and since then has demonstrated the performance four control moment gyroscopes to govern the spacecraft's pointing in space. The gyros reduce the supply ship's fuel consumption, allowing it to remain in orbit for a longer mission.

"That experiment has gone very well," DeMauro said. "We've shown very minimal fuel use."

DeMauro said Northrop Grumman is eager to prove its ability to fly two Cygnus missions at the same time.

"That's important for us because we want to demonstrate to NASA, other government agencies, as well as commercial companies that Cygnus does have the capability to carry on it all sorts or rideshare payloads or science that will benefit from the microgravity environment we can provide, being a free-flyer, and do that for an extended period of time and downlink the data from those experiments," he said.
NASA has ordered six additional Cygnus cargo missions Northrop Grumman under the CRS-2 contract, according to DeMauro. All six are slated to launch on Antares rockets from Wallops Island, Virginia.

NASA has also committed to a minimum of six cargo missions with the agency's other two CRS-2 transportation providers — SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp.

Northrop Grumman has evolved the Cygnus design over the last few years, first by lengthening its pressurized cargo module — built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy — then by expanding the supply ship's power and telemetry capacity.

Engineers have developed the upgrades with a long-term goal of growing the Cygnus spacecraft's market potential beyond space station resupply missions. The Cygnus now has a niche in deploying CubeSats and hosting standalone science experiments.

NASA has selected Northrop Grumman to develop a mini-habitation module derived from the Cygnus spacecraft for the space agency's planned Gateway station in lunar orbit, a waypoint for astronauts on lunar landing missions in NASA's Artemis program. And resupply vehicles based on the Cygnus spacecraft could ferry logistics to the Gateway in the future.

"We've always felt that Cygnus would be a great building block for the next generation of vehicles that go to the moon," DeMauro said.

Earlier this year, NASA announced its selection of Northrop Grumman for a sole-source contract to build and launch the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, or HALO, module to join the Gateway station in 2023, a year before NASA hopes to attempt a crewed lunar landing.

The first piece of the Gateway, a power and propulsion element built by Maxar, is scheduled to launch in 2022.

DeMauro said HALO contract negotiations with NASA are ongoing, with discussions centered on the agency's requirements for the habitation module, which will offer limited life support functions for astronauts on short-duration stints aboard the Gateway.

The HALO will also be designed for a longer lifetime than a typical Cygnus spacecraft.
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tnt22

Цитировать NASA Wallops‏ @NASA_Wallops 50 мин. назад

Parts of the Eastern United States may see @NorthropGrumman's Antares rocket lift off from Virginia on Nov. 2. Outside the predicted visibility area? Tune into NASA TV to watch live!

Full TV schedule: https://go.nasa.gov/2WpmiOt


tnt22

Цитировать NASA HQ PHOTO‏ @nasahqphoto 2 ч. назад

Early morning light on the @NorthropGrumman Antares rocket at the @NASA_Wallops launch pad. Launch to the International Space Station is planned for 9:59 a.m. EDT Saturday, Nov. 2.
More https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJ2dyb3


tnt22

Предварительный прогноз погоды (30.10.2019 10:00L) по полигону на дату пуска:

Преимущественно солнечно, без осадков, ночью +4° C, днём до +15° C


tnt22

https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/2019/feature/seven-student-made-cubesats-set-to-fly-aboard-antares-nov-2-from-wallops
Цитировать

Oct. 31, 2019

Seven Student-Made CubeSats Set To Fly Aboard Antares Nov. 2 fr om Wallops


Montana State University student with RadSat-u CubeSat.

On Saturday, seven small research satellites, or CubeSats, developed by students fr om eight universities across the nation will fly on Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops, Virginia, targeting a launch at 9:59 a.m. EDT.

All seven CubeSats were selected through NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) and are a part of the 25th Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission. CSLI enables the launch of CubeSat projects designed, built and operated by students, teachers and faculty, as well as NASA Centers and nonprofit organizations. ELaNa missions provide launch and deployment opportunities and ride-shares to space for CubeSats selected through CSLI. Students are heavily involved in all aspects of the mission from developing, assembling, and testing payloads to working with NASA and the launch vehicle integration teams. The ELaNa CubeSats are held to rigorous standards similar to those adhered to by the primary spacecraft.

Five of the CubeSats were developed through NASA's Undergraduate Student Instrument Project or USIP.

"Through USIP, NASA offers real-world experiences, with the goal of developing students' competencies in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), skills critical to building a STEM-literate workforce and achieving the nation's exploration goals," said Joyce Winterton, Wallops senior advisor for education and leadership development.

In 2016, NASA's Science Mission Directorate and the Office of Education's National Space Grant Program awarded $8 million through the USIP to 47 student teams from 33 states to conduct hands-on research with 23 of the projects being CubeSats.


The USIP student teams proposed science or technology experiments that are relevant to NASA missions, and the platform to fly their payload. The platforms include sounding rockets, scientific and hand-held balloons, aircraft, suborbital reusable and commercial launch vehicles, and CubeSats launched as a secondary payload on an orbital vehicle.

Students from all eight universities will be on site to view the launch and witness their CubeSats embark on the journey to the International Space Station wh ere they will be deployed in early 2020.

The 5 USIP CubeSats flying on Antares are:

    [/li]
  • RadSat-u
           Montana State University – Bozeman

RadSat-u is a technology demonstration mission of a radiation tolerant computer system that is resilient to faults caused by ionizing radiation.  The computer technology employs a novel fault-mitigation strategy that uses redundant processing cores and real-time reconfiguration of the hardware to quickly recover from radiation-induced failures.  The mission will test the addition of an error correction and synchronization strategy for the data memory of the computer. This mission will also verify that both the processor and memory system can operate reliably in the presence of ionizing radiation. RadSat-u is funded by the NASA Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and University Student Instrument Project.
    [/li]
  • Phoenix
           Arizona State University – Tempe

Phoenix is a technology demonstration mission to determine the effectiveness of nanosat platforms to conduct scientific investigations of urban environments. The Urban Heat Island Effect is a phenomenon in which the structure of the city causes a rise in surface temperature. It will use a thermal-IR imaging payload to study spatial and temporal changes in the heat properties of Phoenix, Arizona, as well as other U.S. cities. The imager is an off-the-shelf FLIR Tau 2 longwave infrared thermal camera. Phoenix is funded by the NASA University Student Instrument Project.
    [/li]
  • SOCRATES
           Signal of Opportunity CubeSat Ranging and Timing ExperimentS

           University of Minnesota – Minneapolis

SOCRATES is a technology demonstration mission to look at gamma ray photons from deep space. The Gamma Ray Incidence Detector (GRID) sensor being developed is a gamma-ray (and hard X-ray) detector optimized for making accurate positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) measurements. In operation, it will use signals of opportunity (e.g., naturally occurring gamma-ray emissions for sources such as Gamma-Ray Bursts or GRBs) as navigation and timing beacons akin to GPS satellites. It will advance the technology readiness level (TRL) of the sensor from 5 to 7. SOCRATES is funded by the NASA University Student Instrument Project.
    [/li]
  • HuskySat-1
           University of Washington – Seattle

HuskySat-1 is a technology demonstration mission to test a pulsed plasma electric propulsion system and a high-frequency K-band communication system. It will fly a newly developed Amateur Radio Linear Transceiver and a purchased UHF/VHF antenna system, but is otherwise an entirely student-designed and built 3U CubeSat, including a camera board developed by local Raisbeck Aviation High School. The project fosters interdisciplinary student participation in space systems research to inspire and train future space scientists. HuskySat-1 is funded by the NASA University Student Instrument Project.
    [/li]
  • SwampSat II
           University of Florida – Gainesville

SwampSat II is a technology demonstration mission to test a boom and antenna spooling and deployment mechanism to support a matched very low frequency (VLF, 3-30 kHz) antenna receiver pair. It will experimentally quantify VLF electromagnetic wave propagation through the lower ionosphere in order to clarify the role of VLF whistler-mode waves in controlling the energetic particle populations of the Earth's radiation belts. SwampSat II is funded by NASA's Undergraduate Student Instrument Project.

The additional two CubeSats flying through CSLI are:
    [/li]
  • Argus-02
            St. Louis University – Missouri

Argus is a scientific investigation to improve modeling of the effects of radiation on space electronics. The payload is an array of radiation-effects modeling experiments wh ere on-orbit event rates will be compared against ground predictions to help calibrate new predictive models developed at the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics. Argus leverages commercial off-the-shelf CubeSat systems and extremely simple payload requirements to enable a short-turnaround mission.
    [/li]
  • HARP—Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter
            University of Maryland, Baltimore County – Baltimore

            Utah State University – Logan

 HARP is a scientific investigation mission designed to measure the microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosols, cloud water and ice particles. It is a precursor for a new generation of imaging polarimeters to be used for the detailed measurements of aerosol and cloud properties in larger missions. The wide field-of-view (FOV) imager splits three spatially identical images into three independent polarizer and detector arrays. This technique achieves simultaneous imagery of the three polarization states and is the key innovation to achieve a high polarimetric accuracy with no moving parts. HARP is funded by the NASA Earth Science Technology Office.

NASA's Wallops Flight Facility manages the USIP missions.

Header Image Caption: Montana State University student with RadSat-u CubeSat.

Tune in Saturday, Nov. 2, beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT to watch the livestream of the  launch:


Last Updated: Oct. 31, 2019
Editor: Patrick Black

tnt22

Цитировать Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 1 мин. назад

As we gear up for launch day, here is Saturday morning's precise 5-minute launch window for #Antares and #Cygnus down to the second.  Thanks to @northropgrumman for the info.
#NG12 #CRS2 #Space #Exploration #Science #Station #ISS @NASASpaceflight


tnt22

Предварительный прогноз погоды (31.10.2019 10:00L) по полигону на дату пуска:

Без особых изменений, преимущественно солнечно, без осадков, ночью +4° C, днём до +15° C

 

tnt22

Опубликована брошюра миссии (НАСА)

Northrop Grumman CRS-12 Overview - 894.6 KB, 4 стр, 2019-10-30 19:31:41 UTC


tnt22

Цитировать NASA Wallops  :f09f8e83:‏ @NASA_Wallops 21 мин. назад

Antares and Cygnus spent several hours standing tall on the launch pad for a series of system checks.

They're now horizontal so late-load cargo can be packed into Cygnus just before liftoff of @NorthropGrumman's CRS-12 mission.

Video


tnt22

https://blogs.nasa.gov/northrop-grumman/2019/10/31/weather-95-favorable-for-northrop-grummans-crs-12-launch-nov-2/
ЦитироватьWeather 95% Favorable for Northrop Grumman's CRS-12 Launch Nov. 2

Micheala Sosby
Posted Oct 31, 2019 at 3:45 pm

NASA commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman is scheduled to launch its next resupply mission to the International Space Station at 9:59 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Nov. 2.

The latest weather forecast stands at 95% favorable for the launch of the company's Antares rocket from pad 0A at Virginia Space's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. At this time, the only weather concern being tracked is a very slight chance of cloud ceilings for a launch attempt on Saturday morning.


The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket is seen a few hours after arriving at launch Pad-0A, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman's 12th contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station will deliver about 8,200 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)


tnt22

ЦитироватьISS National Lab Research Overview - AstroRad Vest

 ISS National Lab

31 окт. 2019 г.

Lockheed Martin Corporation, in collaboration with StemRad will test the performance of the AstroRad radiation shielding vest on crew members onboard the ISS. The AstroRad Vest, launching on Northrop Grumman CRS-12, selectively protects organs most sensitive to radiation exposure—with a focus on protecting stem cell concentrations within those organs. Knowledge gained fr om this investigation could aid in the development of shielding technologies for patients on Earth receiving radiation treatments and personnel who work in areas wh ere radiation exposure is a risk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuRwd4N_FgEhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/fuRwd4N_FgE (1:43)

tnt22

Цитировать Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 8 мин. назад

Note how quickly these to-the-second launch targets can change based on updated ISS position data (affected by atmosphere, solar radiation, etc).  Antares launch window now opens at 09:59:46 EDT (13:59:46 UTC) tomorrow.
#Antares #Cygnus #NG12 #NASA @northropgrumman

tnt22

Цитировать NASA Social‏ @NASASocial 30 мин. назад

Good morning from @NASA_Wallops! We're launching a rocket from here on Nov. 2 at 9:59am ET. The @northropgrumman Antares rocket is currently horizontal for late-stage loading—and we're all smiles! #NASASocial


tnt22

#56
Цитировать Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 5 мин. назад

Right now, crews are installation 100s of pounds of late-load scientific experiments & crew supplies into #Cygnus.  #Antares is horizontal on the pad & will remain there until the over night hours when @northropgrumman will take it vertical for final launch countdown preps.


Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 1 мин. назад

The addition of late-load cargo capability means the Antares is still horizontal for the usual L-1 photo opp (that, or the rocket is sleeping in this morning.)


tnt22


tnt22

Прогноз погоды (01.11.2019 10:00L) по полигону на дату пуска:

Высотные ветрА: max на высоте 25000 ft (7620 м) 42 м/с
Низкая вероятность осадков и молниеобразования в радиусе 10 морских миль от пусковой площадки
К моменту пуска лёгкая (частичная) облачность, ясно, температура около +15° C