Cygnus OA-8 (CRS-8 ) - Antares-230 - MARS LP-0A - 12.11.1017 12:19 UTC

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 23 сек. назад

Cygnus passing directly over Melbourne, Australia.

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ISS Updates‏ @ISS101 4 мин. назад

#Cygnus has arrived at the 250-meter hold point and is now transitioning from relative GPS to its Proximity Navigation System.

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11/14/2017 11:56

The Cygnus spacecraft is currently holding around 250 meters, or 820 feet, beneath the International Space Station. This pause allows mission controllers to evaluate the status of all key systems on both vehicles before clearing Cygnus to approach inside the "keep out sphere," an imaginary bubble stretching 200 meters, or 656 feet, fr om the complex on all sides.

Спойлер

The last major course correction burn, known as ADV3, was completed around an hour ago to put Cygnus on track to arrive directly below the space station.

The Cygnus spacecraft is making its automated approach aided by GPS navigation and laser instruments designed to determine the range and closing rate between the cargo ship and the huge 450-ton space station.

The Cygnus first relied on comparing GPS navigation data from its on-board computer and the space station. The two spacecraft established a radio link early Tuesday through a proximity communications system provided by the Japanese space agency.

After arriving at a hold point about 820 feet directly below the space station, Cygnus switched to a TriDAR sensor, which uses triangulation and fires light pulses and measures their reflections from the space station to measure the range and closing rate between the two vehicles.

The laser-guided visual navigation system feeds data into the Cygnus guidance computer, telling the spacecraft when and wh ere to fire its rocket jets to maneuver the unmanned freighter to a point 30 feet below the space station.

Once Cygnus arrives at a hold point just below the complex around 4:43 a.m. EST (0943 GMT), astronauts Paolo Nespoli and Randy Bresnik will take control of the lab's robot arm to reach out and grapple the free-floating Cygnus spacecraft at 4:50 a.m. EST (0950 GMT).

The robot arm will maneuver the Cygnus spacecraft onto the Unity module's Earth-facing berthing port about two hours later.

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 2 мин назад

#Cygnus has left the 250 meter hold point and is resuming its approach to @Space_Station

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 3 мин назад

#Cygnus is currently 150 meters below @Space_Station and closing #OA8

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 3 мин. назад

#Cygnus is 80 meters below @Space_Station and we are continuing to the 30 meter hold point

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 42 сек назад

#Cygnus has reached the 50 meter mark and is proceeding to the 30 meter hold point #OA8

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 46 сек назад

We are closing in to the 30 meter holding point at .04 meters/second #Cygnus #OA8

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 3 мин. назад

We are now aiming for a 5:00 a.m. EST capture time. Capture window will remain open until 5:48 a.m. #Cygnus #OA8

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 1 мин назад

We are confirmed at the 30 meter holding point and @Space_Station crew is preparing for capture of S.S. Gene Cernan #Cygnus

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