Cygnus OA-7 (CRS-7) - Atlas V - Canaveral SLC-41 - 18.04.2017 15:11 UTC

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 4 мин. назад

Approaching orbital sunrise. Release windows are driven by lighting conditions, making sure the crew has a good visual on the #Cygnus.

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 2 мин назад

.@Astro2fish getting us a nice out-the-window view of the #Cygnus. Ten minutes to release. http://bit.ly/2odu4JC

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 1 мин. назад

.@AstroPeggy reports #Cygnus is configured for release. Crew now entering the release checklist at their own pace. http://bit.ly/2odu4JC 

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 25 сек назад

#ISS now in Attitude Hold mode with thruster assistance disabled, holding still for #Cygnus release.

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Свободен! С текущего момента Лебедь OA-7 - независимый космический объект!
 

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 52 сек назад

After a 13:10 UTC release, #Cygnus has recovered from Free Drift and started its three-minute departure maneuver. http://bit.ly/2odu4JC

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 2 мин. назад

The three-minute #Cygnus departure burn is in progress

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 50 сек назад

Departure burn is complete, #Cygnus now on a safe path out of the ISS Approach Ellipsoid.Another burn in ~4 hours to enter independent orbit

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 1 мин назад

The 1st time two US Commercial Cargo Craft are in free flight. #Cygnus heads out in front of ISS, #Dragon will approach from behind & below

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http://www.orbitalatk.com/news-room/feature-stories/OA7-Mission-Page/default.aspx?prid=180

Mission Update - June 4, 2017

The S.S. John Glenn Cygnus spacecraft was released from the International Space Station at 9:10 a.m. EDT after 42 days at the orbiting laboratory. Cygnus will now complete three additional science experiments; the Spacecraft Fire Experiment-III (Saffire-III) for NASA's Glenn Research Center, the deployment of four CubeSats from its NanoRacks CubeSat deployer, and the Reentry Data Collection (RED-Data-2) test. Cygnus will reenter the Earth's atmosphere on June 11.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2017/06/04/cygnus-departs-station-day-before-dragon-arrives/

Cygnus Departs Station Day Before Dragon Arrives

Posted on June 4, 2017 at 9:20 am by Mark Garcia.


The Cygnus cargo craft, with its prominent Ultra Flex solar arrays, is pictured moments after being released fr om the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV
 
Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA commanded the International Space Station's Candadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft at 9:10 a.m. EDT while the space station was flying above the south Atlantic Ocean. Earlier, ground controllers detached Cygnus from the station and maneuvered it into place for its departure.

The spacecraft spent 44 days at the station after delivering approximately 7,600 pounds of supplies and science experiments to the orbiting laboratory and its Expedition 51 and 52 crew members for Orbital ATK's seventh NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission.

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Dubbed the "SS John Glenn" after the iconic Mercury and shuttle astronaut and U.S. Senator from Ohio, Cygnus will remain in orbit for a week in support of the SAFFIRE experiment and the deployment of four small Nanoracks satellites before Orbital ATK flight controllers send commands June 11 to deorbit the spacecraft for its reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, wh ere it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean. NASA TV will not provide a live broadcast of the Saffire experiment or the Cygnus deorbit burn and reentry, but imagery from Saffire will be posted on NASA.gov as it becomes available.

As Cygnus departs, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched yesterday will close in on the station for its capture by Fischer and Whitson Monday, June 5. Using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, they will grapple the SpaceX cargo spacecraft at 10 a.m. NASA TV coverage will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Get more information about the International Space Station at: http://www.nasa.gov/station

This entry was posted in Expedition 52 and tagged cygnus, dragon, International Space Station, NASA, Orbital ATK, Roscosmos, spacex on June 4, 2017 by Mark Garcia.

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https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/06/iss-farewell-oa-7-cygnus/

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http://spaceflight101.com/cygnus-oa7/cygnus-ss-john-glenn-departs-iss-for-free-flight/

Cygnus S.S. John Glenn departs ISS for Week-Long Free Flight for Fire Experiment, CubeSat Release

June 4, 2017


Photo: NASA TV

Orbital ATK's Cygnus OA-7 resupply craft departed the International Space Station on Sunday after a 43-day stay to head for a week-long free flight for the deployment of small CubeSats and the third iteration of NASA's Spacecraft Fire Experiment that explores how large-scale fires spread in microgravity to improve the safety of future crewed spacecraft.

The S.S. John Glenn – ferrying three and a half metric tons of cargo to the orbiting outpost – had originally been booked for a stay of three months with a notional departure of July 16, however, these plans changed when a day opened up on the crew's packed schedule due to the delay to the launch of the Dragon SpX-11 mission fr om Thursday to Saturday as the result of bad weather at Florida's Space Coast.

The decision to accelerate the mission's departure was purely driven by operational constraints and is no reflection of Cygnus' performance as the spacecraft functioned admirably throughout its stay on the underside of the Station's Unity module. NASA noted the early departure – prior to Dragon SpX-11 arrival – would take pressure off the crew's schedule in June and July, allowing them to focus on the science delivered by the upcoming Dragon that is currently inbound for a robotic capture on Monday after lifting off Saturday night.

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ISS Expedition 51 Crew – Photo: NASA/ESA

The drive behind freeing up as much crew time as possible for science operations arises from the current staffing situation on ISS with only three crew members on board through July 28. Expedition 52 crew members Fyodor Yurchikhin, Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer bid farewell to their colleagues Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet as they set sail on their Soyuz MS-03 to head for a late afternoon landing in Kazakhstan, closing out a 196-day mission.

Typically, the next Soyuz would be inbound within two weeks to top up the Station's crew at six, however, a lengthy delay to the Soyuz MS-05 mission will necessitate a longer three-crew segment. The cause for the delay was a technical defect on the Soyuz #734 vehicle originally intended to fly the Soyuz MS-04 mission, requiring that craft to be replaced with the next Soyuz in line (#735) that was being readied for the MS-05 mission. As a result, Soyuz MS-05 will have to wait for Soyuz #736 that had not been at an advanced stage of pre-launch processing yet, leading to the two-month slip to MS-05.


Cygnus OA-7 with its Cape Canaveral Launch Site & the Colorful Waters of the Bahamas in the background – Photo: NASA

With only two crew members on the U.S. Segment in June/July and dozens of experiments heading up on the Dragon mission, teams were already looking at a cramped timeline for Whitson and Fischer, thus getting an extra day to unberth Cygnus prior to Dragon's arrival was a welcome opportunity to slightly decompress the crew's timeline down the road.

An early unberthing option had been in the plans for this mission all along as transfer procedures related to OA-7 were deliberately set up to finish before the Soyuz MS-03 departure. The SAFFIRE-III experiment was installed on May 22 and final disposal cargo items were loaded on May 29 after very efficient work by the Expedition 51 crew to transfer 3.5 metric tons of cargo over to ISS in a period of just five weeks.

Cygnus OA-7 arrived at ISS back on April 22 after a four-day rendezvous following a flawless launch atop an Atlas V that was chosen as this mission's launcher to maximize the cargo upmass heading to ISS in support of a very busy summer of science operations. All in all, Cygnus was loaded with 3,376kg of cargo, ranging from supplies such as food for the crew and sanitary items to complex systems hardware like NASA's Advanced Plant Habitat and a new low-cost device enabling heat shield materials to be tested in the actual environment of re-entry.

>> Cygnus OA-7 Cargo Overview


Advanced Plant Habitat – Photo: NASA

The Advanced Plant Habitat is NASA's largest plant-growth facility developed for deployment to ISS to gather information needed by the space farmers of the future that will rely on plants as a source of food and to recycle carbon dioxide on missions taking them to distant targets in the solar system.

Cygnus also carried four powered laboratory freezers to the Space Station holding various cold stowage items including a series of microbiological studies aiming to demonstrate a set of tools needed to establish a genetic research facility aboard the Space Station. One experiment employs magnetic nanoparticles that attach to cells in order to make handling of cell cultures possible in the microgravity environment while another pair of studies tests whether techniques for DNA replication and in-space sequencing are feasible for the identification of microbes growing on a spacecraft.


Two CubeSats set sail after release from the Space Station – Photo: NASA

Cygnus provided a lift for a large number of CubeSats including 28 QB50 satellites from 17 different countries that deployed from ISS in May to begin an unprecedented mission to collect multi-point measurements in Earth's lower thermosphere – a region spanning from 90 to 380 Kilometers in altitude wh ere previous missions were only able to make sporadic measurements because of the challenging drag environment this close to the planet.

Final preparations for Cygnus departure were set in motion on Friday within minutes of the departure of Pesquet and Novitskiy when the Station's robotic arm, controlled by teams on the ground, was moved from its park position to grasp the Cygnus Power and Video Grapple Fixture that allows the vehicle to be powered through the arm.

The crew completed procedure reviews on Friday and finished disposal cargo load on Saturday followed by close outs of the pressurized cargo compartment and the closure of the Cygnus hatch. This cleared the way for the lengthy vestibule outfitting task that required the crew to remove power & data jumpers between ISS and Cygnus and re-install four Control Panel Assemblies that are used to drive the bolts within the Active Common Berthing Mechanism.


Cygnus OA-7 after Sunday's Unberthing, Progress MS-05 in the background – Photo: NASA TV

Once these operations were complete, the crew was able to close the Unity module's hatch and depressurize the cavity between the cargo craft and ISS for overnight pressure monitoring before operations resumed Sunday morning. Jumping ahead on the timeline, Mission Control put unberthing procedures into motion at 10:20 UTC – starting the retraction of 16 bolts and opening four capture latches to demate Cygnus from Unity and transfer control of the module to Canadarm2.

ROBO controllers on the ground commanded the arm into motion at 11 UTC, starting with a slow back-out from the Unity CBM before the SSRMS picked up the pace to move Cygnus to its release position, around 12 meters from the Station's modules. In that position, Cygnus waited for its departure time while the crew configured the robotics workstation in the Cupola.


Photo: NASA TV


Photo: NASA TV

The release window – driven by lighting conditions, opened at 13:07 UTC and the crew was given a GO to work through the release timeline at their own pace. Snares within the Latching End Effector were commanded to open and release was confirmed at 13:10 UTC as the arm was slowly backed away from Cygnus to reach a safe distance of 1.5 meters.

Release occurred 400km over the South Atlantic Ocean, capping a stay of 43 days, 3 hours and 5 minutes.

Cygnus was commanded to recover from three-drift two minutes later and received an abort command, per the planned procedure, to initiate a three-minute maneuver to enter a prograde departure.

Twenty minutes after release, Cygnus departed the ISS Approach Ellipsoid, ending integrated operations between NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston and Orbital MCC in Dulles, Virginia. At 17:05 UTC, four hours after release, Cygnus will conduct a 1.4m/s main engine burn to enter an independent orbit for its week-long free flight that will first facilitate the SAFFIRE Experiment, starting later on Sunday, followed by a pair of maneuvers on Thursday to prepare for the release of four CubeSats into a higher orbit than ISS.


SAFFIRE Experiment Assembly – Image: NASA

SAFFIRE-III is targeting initiation at 20 UTC on Sunday as the third run of the Spacecraft Fire Experiment operated by NASA's Glenn Research Center to study fires in microgravity at a realistic scale to learn about flame progression in the absence of gravity and make better informed engineering decisions to improve the fire safety of future crew vehicles.

The first SAFFIRE Experiment on last year's OA-6 mission ignited the largest intentional fire ever set in space, employing an 0.4-meter wide and 0.94-meter long piece of fabric material consisting of a cotton-and-fiberglass blend. This experiment primarily dedicated to studying flame front progression, oxygen consumption and flow characteristics of a large-scale fire in microgravity.

SAFFIRE-II, flying on the OA-5 mission, was slightly different in that it used nine smaller sample cards to study the flammability of different materials and thicknesses to deliver valuable knowledge for the selection of in-cabin materials for future vehicles.



Gary Ruff, SAFFIRE Investigator, demonstrates the size of the combustion sample to media – Photo: NASA

The SAFFIRE-III experiment uses the same setup as the first run but will burn the large sample in different airflow conditions to study the influence of flow dynamics on fire progression.

The SAFFIRE apparatus consists of a flow duct and an adjacent avionics bay housing various sensors and associated power and data systems. Atop the flow duct is a fan creating air flow through the system and on the bottom is a grid serving as a flow straightener. Sensor data and video from the combustion experiment will be downlinked to the ground over a period of days while Cygnus remains in orbit.

Insight into flame growth, temperatures and oxygen use will help improve models for combustion dynamics in microgravity as previous models used by spacecraft manufacturers employed standards for terrestrial fires which may not apply in a spacecraft.

After completion of SAFFIRE, Cygnus will be gearing up for a pair of orbit-raising maneuvers set for 14:57 and 15:48 UTC on Thursday, targeting to place the spacecraft into an orbit 100 Kilometers above that of ISS for the release of four Lemur-2 CubeSats at 20:46 and 23:46 UTC on June 8. This will give the satellites a longer operational life compared to deployment from ISS into its 400-Kilometer orbit that leads the small satellites to decay in around a year's time.


Lemur-2 Pre-Flight Testing – Photo: Spire

The Lemur-2 satellites are 3-Unit CubeSats built and operated by Spire Global to establish a constellation of small, inexpensive satellites in operation for a number of purposes such as Earth observation, maritime monitoring, communications, meteorology and science. Each Lemur-2 satellite carries two different payloads, SENSE, dedicated to maritime monitoring, and STRATOS for atmospheric measurements.

Cygnus will close out its mission next Sunday via a rocket-powered braking maneuver that will enable the craft to intercept the dense atmosphere over a remote stretch of the Pacific Ocean for destructive re-entry.

The demise of the Cygnus spacecraft in the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere will be documented by RED-Data2 – a new device around the size of a soccer ball designed for a twofold mission of gathering data on the re-entry dynamics of a large host spacecraft before breaking loose from the structure and experiencing the re-entry environment for itself to test out a pair of new heat shield materials.

For the ISS crew, operations will continue full speed ahead with Dragon SpX-11 set for a methodical rendezvous on Monday, targeting a capture time of 14 UTC. The next Cygnus mission, according to the latest ISS planning schedule, is targeting liftoff atop an Antares rocket on September 12, however, dates this far out are always subject to change given the fluid nature of ISS operations.

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http://www.orbitalatk.com/news-room/release.asp?prid=258

Orbital ATK's "S.S. John Glenn" Cygnus Departs International Space Station, Begins Secondary Mission in Space

Company Completes Successful Delivery and Removal of Critical Cargo During Seventh Operational Mission for NASA

Next Phase of Mission Marks Third Time Cygnus Used as a Platform to Conduct Science Experiments in Space

Dulles, Virginia 4 June 2017 – Orbital ATK, Inc. (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, today announced that its Cygnus™ spacecraft  successfully unberthed from the International Space Station, beginning the next phase of its mission before it reenters Earth's atmosphere. The "S.S. John Glenn" will now conduct three secondary payload missions including the Saffire-III fire experiment, deployment of four CubeSats and an experiment to further study spacecraft conditions upon reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

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"After another successful stay at the International Space Station, we now enter the next phase of the mission which marks the third time Cygnus has been used as a research platform for science experiments in space," said Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK's Space Systems Group. "Our ability to demonstrate expanded capabilities for Cygnus beyond its core cargo delivery function shows a level of versatility and flexibility with a solid track record of mission success for our customers."

Cygnus departed from the International Space Station at 9:10 a.m. EDT, completing 44 days at the orbiting laboratory. The OA-7 mission began on April 18 when Cygnus launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  Upon arrival at the orbiting laboratory, Cygnus delivered approximately 7,600 pounds (3,450 kilograms) of cargo and science experiments to the astronauts. Prior to departure, the crew loaded the spacecraft with approximately 4,300 pounds (1,950 kilograms) of items for disposal marking the largest amount of material removed by Cygnus during its cargo resupply missions.

Cygnus will now conduct the Spacecraft Fire Experiment-III (Saffire-III), marking the third time the spacecraft has been used to study the behavior of fires in microgravity.  Engineers will remotely execute this experiment from the ground once Cygnus departs the space station. The experiment will intentionally ignite and record a large-scale fire that will grow and advance until it burns itself out. All data from this experiment will be downloaded via telemetry. The results will enable NASA to develop technologies to reduce crew risk and make deep space exploration safer for astronauts. Saffire-III was developed at NASA's Glenn Research Center with support from NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Division.

Next, the "S.S. John Glenn" will use a NanoRacks deployer to release four CubeSats into orbit for global ship tracking. The final experiment will use three Reentry Data Collection Flight Recorders to provide crucial data about the extreme conditions a spacecraft encounters when reentering the Earth's atmosphere. It will also test the performance of different heat shield materials that may be used on future U.S. space missions.

The OA-7 mission is scheduled to end on June 11 when Cygnus is scheduled for a safe, destructive reentry into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Stay informed with real-time updates on the science experiments aboard Cygnus through Orbital ATK's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/OrbitalATK.

About Orbital ATK

Orbital ATK is a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies.  The company designs, builds and delivers space, defense and aviation systems for customers around the world, both as a prime contractor and merchant supplier.  Its main products include launch vehicles and related propulsion systems; missile products, subsystems and defense electronics; precision weapons, armament systems and ammunition; satellites and associated space components and services; and advanced aerospace structures. Headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, Orbital ATK employs approximately 12,500 people in 18 states across the U.S. and in several international locations.  For more information, visit www.orbitalatk.com.
 

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Orbital ATK - CRS-7 Departure from the ISS

(11:30, 113.7 MB)

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U.S. Commerical Cargo Ship Departs the Space Station


NASA

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http://tass.ru/kosmos/4312126

Американский корабль Cygnus отстыкован от МКС
НЬЮ-ЙОРК, 4 июня. /Корр. ТАСС Алексей Качалин/. Корабль Cygnus американской компании Orbital ATK отстыковался от Международной космической станции (МКС). Он осуществит сход с орбиты 11 июня и в тот же день сгорит в плотных слоях атмосферы. Это произойдет ориентировочно над Тихим океаном, сообщило Национальное управление США по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства (NASA).
До 11 июня корабль будет находиться на орбите. За это время специалисты NASA с помощью команд с Земли запустят с Cygnus четыре микроспутника, а также устроят на борту аппарата контролируемый пожар. Этот эксперимент под названием Spacecraft Fire Safety направлен на изучение особенностей горения в условиях невесомости и степени воспламеняемости различных материалов. NASA уже трижды проводила подобные эксперименты, в том числе в июле 2016 года.

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Cygnus разминется с кораблем Dragon компании SpaceX, который был запущен в минувшую субботу с космодрома на мысе Канаверал (штат Флорида) и доставит на МКС полезный груз 5 июня. Стыковкой будут заниматься Фишер и Уитсон.
Dragon, который в отличие от Cygnus предназначен для многоразового использования, пробудет на орбите до 2 июля, потом вернется на Землю с результатами научных экспериментов, проведенных на борту орбитального комплекса. Dragon предстоит на парашютах приводниться в Тихом океане близ северной части полуострова Калифорния.

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"Лебедь" отправился на орбиту 18 апреля. Каждому кораблю присваивается собственное имя в честь астронавтов NASA.
Этот образец Cygnus назван в честь астронавта США Джона Гленна, совершившего (1962) первый орбитальный полет вокруг Земли. Гленн был одним из семи военных летчиков- испытателей, которые в 1959 году были отобраны NASA в первый отряд астронатов. Он полетел в космос пятым в истории космонавтики после Юрия Гагарина, Германа Титова, Алана Шепарда и Вирджила Айвена Гриссома. Гленн скончался в возрасте 95 лет в декабре 2016 года.

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На МКС только трое
С Фишером и Уитсон вахту на орбитальной станции несет российский космонавт Федор Юрчихин. Его коллеги Олег Новицкий и француз Тома Песке из Европейского космического агентства вернулись на Землю 2 июня. На орбиту они отправились 17 ноября 2016 года, продолжительность их пребывания в космическом полете составила 197 суток.
Американка Уитсон прибыла на МКС вместе с Новицким и Песке, но в связи с сокращением российского экипажа с весны этого года и появлением свободного места в корабле - спасателе "Союз МС-04" ее экспедицию продлили до сентября.

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NASA Glenn Research‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAglenn 1 ч. назад

#Saffire III has fired up the test sample! This study helps us learn how fire affects spacecraft materials so we can protect astronauts