posted 05-08-2018 11:27 AM               

Orbital ATK space station freighter named for late executive and NASA director

An aerospace executive and NASA director who helped lead the development of rocket engines for the Saturn V and space shuttle is being memorialized with the naming of a commercial cargo spacecraft.

James Robert "J.R." Thompson, Jr., who died at the age of 81 on Nov. 7, 2017, is the namesake for Orbital ATK's next Cygnus spacecraft set to launch to the International Space Station. The "S.S. J.R. Thompson" will lift off on the OA-9 mission atop an Orbital ATK Antares booster from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia under a resupply services contract with the space agency.

posted 05-08-2018 11:28 AM               

Orbital ATK is targeting Sunday, May 20 with a 5-minute window opening at 5:04 a.m. EDT [0904 GMT) for the launch of the OA-9 mission to the International Space Station.

Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard an Antares rocket for the seventh time from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Cygnus will deliver vital equipment, supplies and scientific equipment to the space station as part of Orbital ATK’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.

The Antares launch vehicle is integrated and ready for Cygnus arrival. Initial cargo has been loaded and the Cygnus spacecraft is ready for fueling. After fueling, Cygnus will move to the Horizontal Integration Facility where it will be mated to Antares and final cargo will be loaded. Fairing encapsulation will be the final activity prior to rollout to Virginia Space's Pad 0A for launch operations.

posted 05-18-2018 09:23 AM               

Orbital ATK in conjunction with NASA, has moved the Antares and Cygnus launch to NET Monday, May 21st at 4:39 a.m. EDT to support further pre-launch inspections and more favorable weather conditions. Monday shows an 80% probability of acceptable weather for launch.

posted 05-18-2018 09:26 AM               

An Orbital ATK rocket is seen as it makes its final approach to launch Pad-0A at Wallops Flight Facility Thursday, May 17, 2018 in advance of a Monday launch, Wallops Island, VA.

posted 05-21-2018 04:06 AM               

Orbital ATK Successfully Launches Ninth Cargo Delivery Mission to the International Space Station for NASA

Antares Rocket Launched 7,400 Pounds of Critical Supplies to the Station

Cygnus Scheduled to Berth with Space Station on May 24

Orbital ATK, a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, successfully launched the company's Antares rocket carrying its Cygnus spacecraft today at 4:44 a.m. EDT from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A on Wallops Island, Virginia, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The launch marks Orbital ATK's ninth cargo mission for NASA.

The Antares medium-class rocket matched its record for the heaviest cargo load carried to date with approximately 7,400 pounds (3,350 kilograms) of vital supplies and scientific equipment aboard Cygnus that will be delivered to the crew aboard the International Space Station.

Following an approximate nine-minute ascent, the "S.S. J.R. Thompson" Cygnus spacecraft, named in honor of J.R. Thompson, a distinguished leader in the space industry, was successfully deployed into orbit. Orbital ATK's engineering team confirmed reliable communications have been established and the vehicle's solar arrays are fully deployed, providing the necessary electrical power to operate the spacecraft.

"Watching an Antares launch cargo to the International Space Station is always impressive," said Scott Lehr, President of Orbital ATK's Flight Systems Group. "The team works very hard to ensure each NASA commercial resupply mission is successful."

Cygnus will be grappled at approximately 5:20 a.m. EDT on May 24. The spacecraft will remain attached to the space station for approximately seven weeks before departing with up to 7,100 pounds (approximately 3,200 kilograms) of disposal cargo. Cygnus's large-volume disposal capability is unique among America's commercial cargo providers and a critical service for NASA.

On this mission, Cygnus will also fly for the first time with an upgraded communications system known as Common Communication for Visiting Vehicles (C2V2). This new system provides Cygnus with the capability for enhanced communication with science payloads and improved interface with hosted payloads on future missions.

"Orbital ATK is proud to once again support the crew on the International Space Station by delivering valuable supplies, equipment and science," said Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK's Space Systems Group. "The upgraded avionics and communication system on the spacecraft demonstrate our commitment to increasing the flexibility and versatility of Cygnus to carry a wide range of payloads. We are also honored to name this mission after J.R. Thompson, a pioneer in the space industry and someone who many of us here at Orbital ATK and in the NASA community were honored to call a colleague and friend."

Once the "S.S. J.R. Thompson" unberths from the space station, a NanoRacks deployer will release six cubesats. Upon completion of its secondary missions, Cygnus will perform a safe, destructive reentry into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Under the CRS-1 contract with NASA, Orbital ATK will deliver approximately 66,000 pounds (30,000 kilograms) of cargo to the space station. Beginning in 2019, the company will carry out a minimum of six cargo missions under NASA's CRS-2 contract. This partnership is cultivating a robust American commercial space industry, freeing NASA to focus on developing the next-generation rocket and spacecraft that will enable humans to conduct deep space exploration missions.

The Cygnus system consists of a common service module and pressurized cargo module (PCM). Orbital ATK builds and tests the service module at its manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia. The company manufactures several other Cygnus components at three facilities in California: UltraFlex solar arrays in Goleta, composite structures in San Diego and propellant tanks in Commerce. The PCM is provided by industry partner Thales Alenia Space in Torino, Italy.

posted 05-21-2018 08:45 AM               

NASA Sends New Research on Orbital ATK Mission to Space Station

Astronauts soon will have new experiments to conduct related to emergency navigation, DNA sequencing and ultra-cold atom research when the research arrives at the International Space Station following the 4:44 a.m. EDT Monday launch of an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft.

Cygnus lifted off on an Antares 230 rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Orbital ATK's ninth cargo mission under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract. The spacecraft is carrying about 7,400 pounds of research equipment, cargo and supplies that will support dozens of the more than 250 investigations underway on the space station.

NASA astronauts Scott Tingle and Ricky Arnold will use the space station's robotic arm to capture Cygnus when it arrives at the station Thursday, May 24. Live coverage of the rendezvous and capture will air on NASA Television and the agency's website beginning at 3:45 a.m. Installation coverage is set to begin at 7:30 a.m.

Included in the cargo in the pressurized area of Cygnus is a centuries-old method of celestial navigation. The Sextant Navigation investigation will explore the use of a hand-held sextant for emergency navigation on missions in deep space as humans look to travel farther from Earth. The ability to sight angles between the Moon or planets and stars offers crews another option to find their way home if communications and main computers are compromised.

Monitoring crew health and the biological environment of the space station, and understanding long-term effects of space travel on both, are critical to NASA's plans for long-duration, deep space exploration. The Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing Technology (BEST) study is the agency's next step toward advancing in-space DNA sequencing technologies that can identify microbial organisms living on the space station and understanding how the DNA of humans, plants and microbes are affected by microgravity.BEST will use a process that sequences DNA directly from a sample, with minimal preparation, rather than using the traditional technique of growing a culture from the sample.

In the realm of modern physics, the new Cold Atom Lab (CAL) on Cygnus could help answer some big questions. CAL creates a temperature 10 billion times colder than the vacuum of space, then uses lasers and magnetic forces to slow down atoms until they are almost motionless. In the microgravity environment of the space station, CAL can observe these ultra-cold atoms for much longer than possible on Earth. Results of this research could lead to a number of improved technologies, including sensors, quantum computers and atomic clocks used in spacecraft navigation.

Cygnus is scheduled to depart the station in July with several tons of trash and burn up during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, over the Pacific Ocean. The vehicle is named after James "J.R." Thompson, a leader in the aerospace industry.

posted 05-24-2018 10:32 AM               

At 5:26 a.m. EDT [0926 GMT] on Thursday (May 24), Expedition 55 flight engineer Scott Tingle of NASA successfully captured Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo spacecraft using the International Space Station's robotic arm, backed by NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship was bolted into place on the International Space Station's Earth-facing port of the Unity module at 8:13 a.m. EDT [1213 GMT].

The spacecraft will spend about seven weeks attached to the space station before departing in July. After it leaves the station, the uncrewed spacecraft will deploy several CubeSats before its fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere as it disposes of several tons of trash.

posted 05-24-2018 04:46 PM            

When the Cygnus cargo carrier eventually burns up in the atmosphere, those empty bags which cost $200 to send into space are incinerated at no extra cost. If they were on Earth, there would be a price for their disposal.

posted 05-25-2018 08:19 PM            

I suppose the slightly esoteric point I was making was that there is a very expensive process accelerating the item from zero to 17,500 mph. Once in orbit, that rubbish can make use of the "free kinetic energy" of orbital velocity to achieve incineration at no additional expense.

posted 07-15-2018 01:40 PM               

'S.S. J.R. Thompson' departs International Space Station and successfully completes reboost

Northrop Grumman Corporation announced that its Cygnus spacecraft, following a highly successful stay at the International Space Station, has departed from the station to begin the next phase of its mission.

While docked with the station, Cygnus performed a reboost experiment for the International Space Station demonstrating the spacecraft's capability to raise the orbiting laboratory's orbit. The "S.S. J.R. Thompson" is now set to deploy six CubeSats in orbit before reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. This mission marks the fifth time that Cygnus has been used for NanoRacks CubeSat deployments during its secondary payload mission phase.

Cygnus departed from the International Space Station at 8:37 a.m. ET on July 15. Five days before departure, the space station reoriented itself and Cygnus fired its thrusters for the International Space Station reboost demonstration, making Cygnus the first American spacecraft to reboost the station since the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet seven years ago. The spacecraft spent 52 days at the station before leaving with more than 6,600 pounds (over 3,000 kilograms) of disposable cargo, a new record for Cygnus.

"This mission once again demonstrates the expanded capabilities for Cygnus and paves the way for future mission objectives," said Frank Culbertson, president, space systems group, Northrop Grumman. "Cygnus performed extremely well during the International Space Station orbit raising experiment, and now the next phase of our extended orbital mission is ready to begin with the deployment of six CubeSats."

The mission began May 21 when Cygnus launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Antares™ rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Upon arrival at the orbiting laboratory, Cygnus delivered approximately 7,400 pounds (3,350 kilograms) of cargo and science experiments to the astronauts, marking the company's ninth operational mission to the International Space Station.

Following unberthing, the "S.S. J.R. Thompson" raised its orbit above the International Space Station to use a NanoRacks CubeSat deployer to release six CubeSats into orbit. Four of the CubeSats will join Spire Global's commercial weather satellite constellation for global ship and weather tracking. The NanoRacks manifest also includes the AeroCube 12A and 12B satellites. These two CubeSats come from the Aerospace Corporation and test new star tracker imagers and high-efficiency solar panels.

The mission is expected to end July 30 when Cygnus will execute a safe, destructive reentry into the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

posted 07-30-2018 08:20 PM               

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus Spacecraft Successfully Concludes Ninth Cargo Supply Mission to the International Space Station

Northrop Grumman Corporation announced that its "S.S. J.R. Thompson" Cygnus spacecraft successfully completed its ninth cargo supply mission to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract. The spacecraft removed more than 6,600 pounds (over 3,000 kilograms) of disposable cargo, a new record for Cygnus. The "S.S. J.R. Thompson" also successfully executed secondary missions that included the demonstration of Cygnus' ability to reboost the space station and the deployment of six CubeSats into orbit from a NanoRacks CubeSat deployer.

The mission officially concluded on July 30 at 5:17 p.m. ET when Cygnus performed a safe, destructive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. The spacecraft remained docked for 52 days at the orbiting laboratory and departed the space station on July 15.

"From launch to our safe re-entry, the 'S.S. J.R. Thompson' performed every phase of this mission perfectly," said Frank Culbertson, president, space systems group, Northrop Grumman. "We now turn our attention toward final preparations for the next Cygnus cargo mission later this year with a continued focus on supporting the needs of the crew members aboard the International Space Station, as well as enabling crucial research programs in space."

The mission began May 21 when Cygnus launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Upon arrival at the orbiting laboratory, Cygnus delivered approximately 7,400 pounds (3,350 kilograms) of cargo, supplies and scientific experiments to the astronauts.

Pending NASA's specific cargo needs, Northrop Grumman is prepared to launch an additional CRS mission later this year aboard the company's Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.