Cargo Cygnus released from the space station, heading for an extended mission – Spaceflight Now

Closing 52 days at the International Space Station, an automated cargo ship Northrop Grumman Cygnus leaves the search outpost Sunday to climb into a higher orbit for the deployment of six CubeSats and from other engineering experiments, before

Astronaut of the European Space Agency Alexander Gerst, at the controls of the Canadian robotic arm of the station, sent the command to release the Cygnus spacecraft a few hours after the mothership ship was removed from a spaceship. The hand stamp of the robot's arm opened and released the Cygnus spacecraft at 8:37 am EDT (12:37 GMT) Sunday, as the space station flew 253 miles (407 kilometers) above southeastern Colombia.

The supply ship Cygnus completed a burn start a few moments later, and the cameras aboard the station showed the visiting cargo ship – now laden with rubbish – that flew away. "C & # 39; is really cool to see Cygnus go, "says astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor from the space station. "(That's) almost a bit surreal to watch a cargo vehicle like that leave the station, and see it from afar.And just think, it was a normal day at the office."

The flight plan provided for the Cygnus spacecraft to climb into a higher orbit Sunday, the sixth CubeSats exit stage for Spire Global and Aerospace Corp. The six CubeSats, each the size of a shoebox, will deploy in pairs from a NanoRacks carrier module mounted on the Cygnus spacecraft over several hours Sunday early Monday

The CubeSats include four "Lemur-2" payloads for Spire Global, based in San Francisco, which builds and operates a fleet of nanosatellites monitoring the Earth's atmosphere and tracking shipping traffic. AeroCube 12A and 12B satellites from Aerospace Corp. will also be launched to demonstrate new star-tracker imaging sensors, various nanotechnology payloads, advanced solar cells and an electric propulsion system on one of two satellites.

The launch and deployment of the Lemur-2 and AeroCube nanosatellites was organized by Houston-based NanoRacks, which provided the CubeSat carrier module on the Cygnus spacecraft

Following CubeSat deployments, controllers at the Cygnus Control Center of Northrop Grumman in Dulles, Va., will put the spacecraft through additional tests over the next two weeks, then uplink orders for the ship refueling her engine and fall into orbit July 30. [19659003] The station's crew packed 6,600 pounds (3,000 kilograms) of garbage in the cargo compartment built in Italy by the Cygnus spacecraft to be eliminated during the destructive return of the ship at the end of the month .

The Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the station May 24 – three days after launching on an Antares rocket from Virginia – and delivered £ 7.205 (3,268 kilograms) provisions, experiments, and other materials. The astronauts unloaded the cargo and replaced it with labeled waste for disposal.

The objects carried to the station by the Cygnus spacecraft included NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory, a quantum physics experiment to explore the nature of ultra-cold matter. The Cygnus spacecraft, named SSJR Thompson according to a former NASA deputy administrator and Orbital ATK officer, also delivered nine more CubeSats that were transferred to the station to be deployed by the Japanese.

Another first for the Cygnus cargo mission was a test of the reboost capacity of the supply ship on Tuesday. The Cygnus freighter became the first US spacecraft to raise the altitude of the station since the withdrawal of NASA's fleet in 2011.

The Cygnus has increased the altitude of the station than 90 meters The main engine of the ship, but future maneuvers could use longer burns for larger reboostings.

Russian cargo cargo ships, and the propulsion system on the Russian Space Station's Zvezda service module, conducted almost all the orbital maneuvers of the research laboratory. the end of the space shuttle program, with the exception of some reboosted by the automated transfer vehicle of the European Space Agency, now in retirement. Russian mission controllers usually plan several reforestation maneuvers a year to counter the effects of atmospheric drag, which is gradually bringing the space station closer to Earth.

NASA plans to use future Cygnus missions for additional burns. According to Kirk Shireman, NASA Space Station program director, SpaceX Dragon capsules are not intended for reboosts because the Cygnus propulsion system is better suited for this work.

The Cygnus spacecraft has received a new owner. International Space Station, thanks to Northrop Grumman's acquisition of Orbital ATK in June

NASA has signed multi-billion dollar contracts with Northrop Grumman and SpaceX for replenishment flights from the station. Cygnus' mission concluded this month is Northrop Grumman's ninth operational mission under a contract valued at $ 2.89 billion, according to NASA's Inspector General.

Northrop Grumman's next Cygnus mission is scheduled to begin in November. still aboard an Antares booster launched from Wallops Island, Virginia

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