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Derek Richardson
July 15, 2018
OA-9 Cygnus seen on his arrival at ISS on May 24, 2018. Photo: NASA
After two months attached to the International Space Station, the ninth Cygnus refueling spacecraft was detached and released from the outpost into orbit to perform a two-week secondary mission in free flight.
The Northrop Grumman (formerly ATK Orbital) OA-9 Cygnus was released in the early hours of July 15, 2018 before being released at 8:37 am EDT (12:37 GMT). Initially, the freighter and the ISS flew 253 miles (407 kilometers) above Colombia's southeastern border. The engineers of the NASA Serena Aunon-Chancellor's expedition and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (two of the six people residing at the outpost) were at the helm of the Canadian robot of 17, 7 feet (17.6 meters) Canadarm2 [19459010
"It was really cool to see Cygnus leave," says Expedition 56 The Flight Engineer Serena Aunon- Chancellor of NASA at Mission Control in Houston. "[It was] almost a bit surreal to watch a cargo vehicle like that leave the station, then see it from afar and think it was just a normal day at the office."
A view of the OA-9 Cygnus with Soyuz MS-09 moored in the background. Photo credit: NASA
The Cygnus OA-9, named S.S. JR Thompson was launched at the outpost on May 21st. After a three-day trek, the spaceship joined with the ISS and arrived at about 10 meters from the Destin of the outpost lab module . With the help of Canadarm2 the Expedition 55 crew captured the cargo ship. Several hours later, the arm was used to maneuver the ship to the port of Unity, which faces the Earth.
During his 52-day stay at the ISS, his 3,400 pounds [freighter] was unloaded and reloaded with approximately 6,600 pounds (3,000 kilograms) of equipment not needed for a eventual disposal by burning on the Pacific Ocean.
Several days before the start of the evacuation operations, a unique task was performed by Cygnus- a test of the reboost capability of the spacecraft. It was the first time that a commercial vehicle was performing this task, which is usually done by the Russian spacecraft Progress.
At 4:25 pm EDT (20:25 GMT) On July 10, the main engine of Cygnus was fired for about 50 seconds. Although brief, she has again increased the altitude to about 295 feet, according to NASA.
The space station flies about 250 miles (402 kilometers) above the Earth. However, there is still a small amount of atmospheric particles that are constantly slowing the 400-tonne outpost, gradually lowering its orbit. If reforestation is not done every few months, the resort will eventually fall from the sky.
The resort's refuges were carried out by NASA's space shuttles several times during the construction phase of the outpost between 1998 and 2011. Since then, the Russian Progress satellite has been the main way to enhance the orbit of the ISS. In addition, the automated transfer vehicle of the European Space Agency, which was removed from the Space Shuttle, also contributed to the redevelopment.
The service module Zvezda launched in 2000, also has a fuel reserve and can elevate the orbit of the space station. But as it is limited, it is reserved for use only when a tour vehicle is unable to do this task.
Now that the ISS mission of OA-9 Cygnus is over, it will not burn until July 30th. This free two-week flight will be used to deploy six CubeSats with the help of an external NanoRacks deployer attached to the spacecraft. Once completed, Cygnus will be responsible for desorbing on the southern Pacific Ocean to burn safely.
The next Cygnus is currently scheduled for late November 2018. However, the exact date will vary in the coming months. to accommodate not only the comings and goings of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz and Progress, but also a Japanese spacecraft Kounotori in September, as well as the first unscheduled test flights from the Commercial Crew program as early as the autumn of 2018.
Courtesy of NASA
Derek Richardson
Derek Richardson graduated in mass media, with a focus in contemporary journalism, from the university from Washburn to Topeka, Kansas. In Washburn, he was editor of the student-run newspaper Washburn Review. He also has a blog on the International Space Station called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team during the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter.
His passion for space was inflamed when he saw the Space Shuttle Discovery take off in space on October 29, 1998. Today, this fervor is accelerated to orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After taking courses in mathematics and engineering at the university, he quickly realized that his true calling was to communicate to others about space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has strived to improve the quality of our content, eventually becoming our editor. @TheSpaceWriter
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