Cygnus OA-5 - Antares-230 - MARS LP-0A - 17.10.2016 23:45 UTC

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James Dean ‏@flatoday_jdean  23 окт.  
Capture -- Orbital ATK Cygnus OA-5 "SS Alan Poindexter" cargo ship has arrived at ISS.

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Spaceflight Now ‏@SpaceflightNow  3 ч3 часа назад  
From the International Space Station, the Cygnus cargo craft is backdropped by a stunning aurora

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https://ria.ru/space/20161117/1481537789.html

Американский космический грузовик Cygnus покинет МКС на следующей неделе
05:52 17.11.2016

© Фото: Роскосмос/Олег Скрипочка

ВАШИНГТОН, 17 ноя – РИА Новости. Американский космический грузовой корабль Cygnus покинет Международную космическую станцию (МКС) 21 ноября, сообщило НАСА в четверг.
 Грузовик прибыл на МКС в октябре, доставив провиант, предметы первой необходимости, а также материалы для научных экспериментов. С того времени корабль находится у американского модуля "Юнити" (Unity, Единство).
В понедельник, 21 ноября, специалисты с Земли при поддержке членов экипажа МКС осуществят отстыковку корабля. Однако его миссия на этом не завершится, Cygnus будет оставаться на орбите до 27 ноября, когда включатся его двигатели, он войдет в атмосферу Земли, где сгорит над Тихим океаном.
 Через пять часов после того, как корабль покинет станцию, на его борту начнется искусственный "пожар" — эксперимент Saffire–II по изучению поведения открытого огня в космосе. Датчики, которыми оснащен грузовой корабль, будут передавать на Землю информацию о происходящем в нем – высоте пламени, уровне кислорода. Исследователи НАСА надеются, что полученная информация будет использоваться в будущем, в том числе, для выбора материалов при создании пилотируемых космических кораблей.
Помимо пожара на борту 25 ноября Cygnus предстоит провести запуск четырех кубсатов LEMUR. Малые спутники предназначены для определения местонахождения кораблей и наблюдений за погодой.
Грузовик Cygnus принадлежит компании Orbital ATK, осуществляющей грузовые рейсы к МКС по контракту с НАСА. Ранее сообщалось, что следующий рейс Cygnus к МКС состоится весной 2017 года

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https://ria.ru/science/20161121/1481823609.html

Космический грузовик Cygnus покинул МКС
16:39 21.11.2016

© Фото: Twitter/Tim Peake

ВАШИНГТОН, 21 ноя — РИА Новости. Космический грузовой корабль Cygnus американской компании Orbital ATK покинул Международную космическую станцию (МКС), сообщило НАСА.
Аппарат прибыл на МКС в октябре и на протяжении более двух месяцев оставался у американского модуля "Единство" (Unity). Утром в понедельник корабль был отведен на безопасное расстояние от станции при помощи механического манипулятора Canodarm. Отстыковка корабля от него произошла в 16:22 мск. Cygnus в свободном космическом плавании отдаляется от станции, после чего будут включены его двигатели.
Cygnus будет оставаться на орбите еще неделю. Сначала на борту грузовика пройдет эксперимент по поведению огня в космосе, затем с борта корабля будет осуществлен запуск малых спутников. Планируется, что 27 ноября Cygnus сгорит при входе в атмосферу Земли над Тихим океаном.

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Cygnus OA-5 departs Station after one month mission
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/11/cygnus-oa-5-station-one-month-mission/

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2016/11/21/astronauts-release-cygnus-space-freighter-from-station/

Astronauts Release Cygnus Space Freighter Fr om Station
Posted on November 21, 2016 at 8:44 am by Mark Garcia.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus space freighter is seen moments after being released from the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Credit: NASA TV
 
Expedition 50 robotic arm operators Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) commanded the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft at 8:22 a.m. EST while the space station was flying 251 miles over the Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of Colombia. Earlier, ground controllers detached Cygnus from the station and maneuvered it into place for its departure.
Once Cygnus is a safe distance away from the station, ground controllers at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, will activate the Saffire-II experiment.
Cygnus also will release four LEMUR CubeSats from an external deployer on Friday, Nov. 25, sending them to join a remote sensing satellite constellation that provides global ship tracking and weather monitoring.
The spacecraft will remain in orbit until Sunday, Nov. 27, when its engines will fire twice, pushing it into Earth's atmosphere, wh ere it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean.
The Cygnus resupply craft launched Oct. 17 on an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, for the company's sixth NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission. The company's seventh contracted resupply mission is targeted for spring 2017 on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/orbital/2016/11/21/cygnus-spacecraft-departs-iss/

Cygnus Spacecraft Departs ISS
Posted on November 21, 2016 at 9:19 am by Brian Dunbar.

Expedition 50 robotic arm operators Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) commanded the International Space Station's Candadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft at 8:22 a.m. EST while the space station was flying 251 miles over the Pacific Ocean, off the west cost of Columbia. Earlier, ground controllers detached Cygnus fr om the station and maneuvered it into place for its departure.

Once Cygnus is a safe distance away from the station, ground controllers at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, will activate the Saffire-II experiment.
Cygnus also will release four LEMUR CubeSats from an external deployer on Friday, Nov. 25, sending them to join a remote sensing satellite constellation that provides global ship tracking and weather monitoring.

The spacecraft will remain in orbit until Sunday, Nov. 27, when its engines will fire twice, pushing it into Earth's atmosphere, wh ere it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

The Cygnus resupply craft launched Oct. 17 on an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, for the company's sixth NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission. The company's seventh contracted resupply mission is targeted for spring 2017 on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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Orbital ATK ‏@OrbitalATK  2 ч.2 часа назад  
The departure burn is in progress and will last about 3 minutes #Cygnus #OA5

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http://www.orbitalatk.com/news-room/release.asp?prid=201

Orbital ATK's OA-5 Mission Begins Next Phase, Performing Experiments in Space

The "S.S. Alan Poindexter" Cygnus Departs International Space Station After Another Successful Delivery and Removal of Critical Cargo
 

Next Phase of Mission Marks Second Time Cygnus Used as a Science Platform

Dulles, Virginia 21 November 2016 – Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, today announced that its Cygnus™ spacecraft successfully unberthed from the International Space Station, starting the second phase of its mission before it reenters Earth's atmosphere. Orbiting on its own, free of the ISS, the "S.S. Alan Poindexter" Cygnus will conduct two secondary mission objectives as part of its flight program: the Saffire-II payload experiment and the deployment of CubeSats to enhance weather forecasting capabilities. This is the second time Orbital ATK will use a Cygnus spacecraft as a platform for conducting science experiments in space. 
"Cygnus had a successful, month-long stay at the International Space Station, delivering critical cargo to the astronauts," said Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK's Space Systems Group. "Now, we get another opportunity to showcase this unique spacecraft's expanded capabilities beyond its core cargo delivery function. To use Cygnus yet again as a research platform demonstrates a versatility and flexibility that we are proud to offer to our customers."
Cygnus departed from the International Space Station at 8:22 a.m. EST on November 21, completing a 29 day stay at the orbiting laboratory. The mission, known as OA-5, began on October 17, 2016 when Cygnus launched aboard an upgraded Antares rocket from NASA Wallops Flight Facility, marking Orbital ATK's return to flight operations in eastern Virginia.  Upon arrival at the station, Cygnus delivered 5,300 pounds (2,400 kilograms) of cargo and science experiments to the astronauts. The Expedition 50 crew members loaded the cargo module with approximately 2,469 pounds (1,120 kilograms) of items for disposal prior to Cygnus' departure.
The Spacecraft Fire Experiment-II (Saffire-II), which was developed at NASA's Glenn Research Center and funded by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Division, is the second in a series of tests to study the behavior of large-scale fires in microgravity. Orbital ATK engineers will remotely conduct this experiment from the ground once Cygnus departs the International Space Station. The experiment will intentionally ignite nine different experimental material samples to help investigators better understand flammability of these materials in a microgravity environment. All data obtained from this experiment will be downloaded via telemetry.
Next, the "S.S. Alan Poindexter" will use a NanoRacks deployer to place several CubeSats into orbit to conduct meteorological research. The OA-5 mission is slated to end on November 27 when Cygnus is scheduled for a safe, destructive reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
Stay informed with updates on the science experiments aboard Cygnus through Orbital ATK's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/OrbitalATK.

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Orbital ATK ‏@OrbitalATK  5 мин.5 минут назад    Ashburn, VA  
The Saffire experiment is powered & we are receiving telemetry. We remain on track for a 7:00pm ET sample ignition #OA5

  NASA ‏@NASA  48 мин.48 минут назад  
We're lighting a fire in space...on purpose! We want to learn how fire burns in space in order to prevent them. More: http://go.nasa.gov/2fLQS1D 

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https://www.afp.com/en/news/2265/fire-space-experiment-kicks-aboard-us-cargo-ship
...
- 'Just light it on fire' -
The Saffire project seeks to find out if an upward spreading flame will continue to grow, or if microgravity will limit the size of the fire.
It also aims to reveal which fabrics and materials will catch fire and how they will burn.
Before any of this could be tried in space, scientists had to find a spaceship on which to stage their experiments.
With astronauts' lives at risk, not to mention expensive spacecraft components, there were no takers until Orbital offered its unmanned Cygnus, which burns up anyway on re-entry. SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship is made to return to Earth intact.
"My initial idea was just to light the trash on fire and see what happens," principal investigator David Urban told AFP.
"But for various reasons -- not the least of which was I needed to get the data back -- that was not quite the way we went."
Instead, an international team of researchers including the European Space Agency made nine compartments for materials to be set ablaze.
These included "flame retardant fabrics used for astronaut clothing, station Plexiglas window samples with edge variations and structures used for storage containers and silicone composites," NASA said.
Each sample is two by 11 inches (five by 28 centimeters), and is placed in a separate compartment for the fire study.
Two high-definition video cameras are placed inside, collectively filming all the samples, said Urban, chief of the combustion physics and reacting processes branch at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio.
Hot wires were scheduled to ignite the first of the fires Monday afternoon.
Images and data will not arrive back on Earth until Tuesday, Urban said.
Not all of the samples are expected to ignite, said Urban. If they did, it would be "very surprising."
Another Saffire experiment is planned for early 2017.
....

Описание Spacecraft Fire Experiment-II (Saffire-II)

https://www.nasa.gov/saffire

Saffire-II: Ignition scheduled for Nov. 21, 2016

Saffire-II launched inside Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft during its sixth contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station in October 2016. This second in the Spacecraft Fire Safety Series builds on the data captured during Saffire-I and expands the test portfolio with new materials. The nine samples in the experiment kit include a cotton-fiberglass blend, Nomex, and the same acrylic glass that is used for spacecraft windows. After Cygnus departs the station, and before its destructive reentry to Earth, mission controllers on the ground will remotely ignite the samples.

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• See images, video and read the mission timeline here: NASA Sets Space Fire in Second Round of Fire Safety Experiments
• Saffire-II Space Station Research Page
  

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-sets-space-fire-in-second-round-of-fire-safety-experiments
Monday, Nov. 21, 2016
All updates are posted in Eastern Standard Time
8:04 p.m.: Samples 1-6 have been ignited and we've captured more than 106,000 images. Samples 1-4 were a silicon material at different thicknesses. Samples 5 and 6 were the same cotton-fiberglass blend that was burned on Saffire-I; one was at the same flow speed as Saffire-I and the other was at the flow speed planned for Saffire-III. Samples 7-9 up next! The images will be downlinked to Orbital ATK overnight and transferred to researchers at NASA-GRC for analysis tomorrow. Initial images will be released as they are available.
7:14 p.m.: We've received confirmation that the first Saffire-II test sample has been ignited.
6:04 p.m.: Orbital ATK has confirmed that the Saffire-II experiment is powered and we are receiving telemetry. We remain on track for a 7:00 p.m. sample ignition. 
8:22 a.m.: Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency commanded the International Space Station's Candadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft.

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Jonathan McDowell Подлинная учетная запись ‏@planet4589  22 нояб.  
These Lemur-2 satellites seem to be named after Spire team members @mikeudacity, Xiaoqing Dong, @anubhav19 and Wingo Wong.
 
  Jonathan McDowell Подлинная учетная запись ‏@planet4589  22 нояб.  nathan McDowell Ретвитнул(а) Spire
The 4 Lemur-2 satellites to be deployed from Cygnus OA-5 later this week:
Jonathan McDowell добавил(а),

 
 Spire  @SpireGlobal  
LEMUR-2-SOKOLSKY, LEMUR-2-XIAOQING, LEMUR-2-ANUBHAVTHAKUR, LEMUR-2-WINGO

  Jonathan McDowell Подлинная учетная запись ‏@planet4589  21 нояб.  
The Poindexter (Cygnus mission OA-5) will release a set of cubesat on Nov 25 prior to being deorbited

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 https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-sets-space-fire-in-second-round-of-fire-safety-experimentsTuesday, Nov. 22, 2106
All updates are posted in Eastern Standard Time
6:00 p.m: The Saffire team has successfully downlinked images from the nine samples tested in Saffire-II. The first sample has a thin sheet of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), also known as plexiglass, that is being used to ignite Nomex, a commercially available, flame-resistant material that is used on spacecraft for cargo storage bags and as a fire barrier. The second sample is a plexiglass sheet (5 cm wide x 29 cm long x 10 cm wide), a material that is used for spacecraft windows. The Saffire investigators will continue to downlink data and images on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and provide additional updates as they are available.
Monday, Nov. 21, 2016
9:30 p.m.: All nine samples have burned and preliminary telemetry indicate that data and images were recorded as expected for all 9 samples and flow visualization. The Saffire-II hardware performed very well and there were no issues. The team will spend tonight downlinking the sensor and image data and begin analysis of the dataset tomorrow morning. Updates on Tuesday will include preliminary sensor data and images from the burns.
Saffire-II Sample 7

Saffire-II Sample 9

А они все о поджоге корабля
 https://ria.ru/science/20161123/1481965847.html
На орбите подожгли грузовой корабль Cygnus
 https://rg.ru/2016/11/23/video-nasa-podozhglo-kosmicheskij-korabl-na-orbite.html
Видео: NASA подожгло космический корабль на орбите
 http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201611240921-2tsf.htm 
NASA подожгло космический корабль на орбите
 https://www.rusdialog.ru/news/87334_1479971197
NASA подожгло собственный космический корабль, отстыковавшийся от МКС, чтобы узнать результаты возгорания на борту
 https://riafan.ru/577152-nasa-otzhigaet-na-orbite-gorit-gruzovoi-korabl-cygnus
NASA отжигает: на орбите горит грузовой корабль Cygnus

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Да проще надо - НАСА отжигает!

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Orbital ATK ‏@OrbitalATK  19 мин.19 минут назад    Oak Grove, VA  
OA-5 #Cygnus is now orbiting at an altitude of 500km for the NanoRacks deployments - the highest #orbit ever achieved by a Cygnus spacecraft

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Orbital ATK ‏@OrbitalATK  56 мин.56 минут назад    Oak Grove, VA
The first @NanoRacks CubeSats have been successfully deployed from our #Cygnus spacecraft. #OA5

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Orbital ATK ‏@OrbitalATK  15 мин.15 минут назад    Oak Grove, VA  
Orbital ATK Ретвитнул(а) NanoRacks
We are proud to help @NanoRacks achieve a successful deployment of their #cubesats as part of the #OA5 mission
Orbital ATK добавил(а),

 
 NanoRacks  @NanoRacks  
Another night in historic #cubesat deployments. Thank you @OrbitalATK @NASA and all who allowed this to happen! #Cygnus https://twitter.com/jeffmanber/status/802306711574847488 ...

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Jeffrey Manber ‏@jeffmanber  21 мин.21 минуту назад  
Successful #Cygnus #Cubesat deploy via @nanoracks deployers. 1st time US deploys above #ISS Thks 2 all who allow our commercial station use!