Northrop Grumman prepares S / S John Young for his flight to the ISS

Northrup Grumman's Antares rocket with the encapsulated NG-10 Cygnus sits on the launch pad in Virginia before launch. Photo credit: Joel Kowsky / NASA

WALLOPS ISLAND, Virginia – NASA and Northrop Grumman prepare to launch the next Cygnus spacecraft, S.S. John Young, on a mission to transport equipment, experiments and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Cygnus NG-10 mission is scheduled to begin at the top of an Antares 230 rocket at 04:49 EST (9:49 GMT) on November 15, 2018. The launch site is Pad 0A of the Midport Regional Spaceport, during the jet flight from NASA. Facility in Virginia.

The new "GN" designation for the mission is Northrop Grumman, which acquired Orbital ATK on June 16, 2018. Northrop Grumman now operates the Cygnus spacecraft and the Antares 230 vehicles, which will execute the NG-10 mission and the latest commercial vehicle. from the company. Mission Replenishment Services (CRS), NG-11.

A sign at the entrance to Runway 0A of the Regional Spaceport of Atlantic, Virginia. Photo credit: Joel Kowsky / NASA

After the NG-11 mission, scheduled for launch on April 17, 2019, the company will move to the second contract, CRS2. Northrop Grumman is committed to performing at least six Cygnus missions as part of CRS2.

This will be the ninth total flight for an Antares rocket and the fourth of the improved Antares 230 variant. The Antares main thruster was upgraded in 2016 from previous AJ-26 engines to two first-stage NPO Energomash RD-181 engines. Ukrainian engines burn a mixture of liquid oxygen and rocket quality kerosene, which provides an estimated takeoff thrust of 864,000 pounds (3,844 kilonewtons). The Beaver 30XL solid propellant rocket engine on the upper stage completes the payload orbit.

the S.S. John Young Cygnus represents the seventh flight of the increased capacity Cygnus spacecraft. It consists of a pressurized cargo module that contains food, water, equipment, supplies and experiences for each mission to the ISS. The service module provides the power, propulsion and communications of the spacecraft. A single engine allows the spacecraft to change orbit, while two fixed wing UltraFlex solar panels of gallium arsenide cells generate 3.5 kilowatts of power.

Once in orbit, the S.S. John Young is scheduled to go to the ISS. The trip should last several days. Once there, it will be positioned approximately 33 feet (10 meters) under the station destiny module. The European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Alexander Gerst, will then use the Canadarm2 17.7 meters (57.7 feet) to seize the spacecraft and the maneuver to the port of Unit module, where it will be moored and secured at the station. The spacecraft should remain attached to the ISS until February 2019.

the S.S. John Young The crew of ISS and Expedition 57, consisting of Gerst, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor, will carry approximately 3,600 kilograms of experiments, supplies and equipment. equipment. The NG-10 cargo manifest has undergone some modifications following the recent flight abort of the Soyuz MS-10.

The launch of October 11, 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome saw a failure of the separation, which triggered the vehicle emergency abandonment system, resulting in the ballistic reappearance of Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and the astronaut of the NASA Nick Hague. The two men landed safely and were recovered, but the failure left two crew members at the space station trained to perform a number of specific experiments while they were at it. # 39; outpost.

The next scheduled launch of Soyuz was postponed from 20 to 3 December, when Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jaques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain are about to take off from Baikonur.

Once the final cargo manifested was loaded into the space shuttle, Cygnus was encapsulated in the payload fairing of the Antares rocket. On November 13, the rocket was moved onto the launch pad and lifted vertically for launch.

On November 13, 2018, the Antares 230 rocket was projected on the runway. The weather conditions for the launch attempt of November 15, 2018 should not be much better with only a 30 per cent chance that the take-off conditions will be acceptable. Photo credit: Joel Kowsky / NASA

The manifest NG-10

The mission manifesto includes a number of scientific payloads designed to conduct investigations that could potentially benefit life on Earth as well as missions beyond our home world.

These experiments include a study called CEMSICA, which will test a process of using calcium silicate particles to synthesize membranes as thin as a human hair. These membranes can separate carbon dioxide molecules from waste gases, a technology that could improve our ability to reduce our planet's greenhouse gases.

A study called CASIS PCG-16 is designed to evaluate the growth of protein crystals involved in Parkinson's disease. Microgravity-grown crystals are larger, allowing researchers to further analyze the exact shape and morphology of the protein and to better understand the pathology of the disease.

The NG-10 Cygnus is in charge of supplies and experiments at NASA's Wallops flight facility prior to its flight to the International Space Station. Photo credit: Patrick Black / NASA

The NG-10 will bring a machine called the refurbisher, an integrated 3D printer and a recycler to the station. The machine, produced by Tethers Unlimited, of Bothell, WA, is designed to recycle plastic waste into high quality 3D printer filaments.

"This material is a key part of NASA's space technology development roadmap," said Tara Ruttley, Senior Associate Scientist for Microgravity Research at NASA's Chief Scientist's Office. . "We intend to develop that further."

If this technology were successfully tested in space, it could enable the long-term manufacture, repair and recycling of long-duration space missions. This would also eliminate the need to carry a large amount of raw material for the printer.

"If we go to the moon, it's time to send something out there," said Kathleen Boggs, head of technology demonstrations for ISS systems, at a recent press conference. "If we go to Mars, it will be months before we get something. It is essential to be able to print spare parts or recycle them on demand for long-term missions in the space. "

A virtual reality screen called VECTION will also be aboard the NG-10. ISS crew members will be able to use the display, sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency, to examine the impact of microgravity on sensory information affecting astronauts, especially on how a person can make errors in estimating speed, distance or orientation. in relation to their physical environment.

The MVP-Cell 05 experiment uses a special centrifuge to produce a variable gravity environment to study the cement solidification process in various extraterrestrial gravity conditions. This is part of an ongoing investigation into the process of using cement for the construction of future structures on the Moon, Mars and other extraterrestrial bodies.

In addition to these experimental and other hardware packages, S.S. John Young will bring a number of CubeSats to the ISS. These will be taken aboard the station and loaded into NanoRacks CubeSat deployers positioned above and below the station for later deployment.

At the end of their stay at the ISS, the station crew will load the cargo for disposal and the vehicle will be unloaded from the outpost via Canadarm2. It will then position itself in a higher orbit where it will deploy the NSLSat 1 CubeSat.

NSLSat 1 is a 2U CubeSat mission designed to correlate solar activity with electron density in the near-Earth plasma field. It should be placed in an almost circular orbit of 500 km.

Following this deployment, the S.S. John Young will be desorbed and will make a destructive return to the Pacific Ocean.

Northrop Grumman named the Space Shuttle in honor of NASA astronaut John Young, a former NASA astronaut and veteran of the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions. Young died on January 5, 2018 at the age of 87. His last flight had taken place as commander of STS-9 in 1983. Young had retired from the space agency in 2004 after 42 years spent serving a myriad of skills that improved training, safety and effectiveness of NASA's manned space flight efforts.

Video provided by NASA

Tagged: Antares Commercial Replenishment Services History of the International Space Station Cygnus NASA NG 10 Northrop Grumman S.S. John Young Wallops Flight Facility

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Michael Cole

Michael Cole has been a space flight enthusiast ever since and author of some 36 educational books on spaceflight and astronomy for Enslow Publishers. He lives in Findlay, Ohio, not far from Neil Armstrong's birthplace, Wapakoneta. His interest in space and his background in journalism and public relations are ideally suited to his research and development activities at NASA's Glenn Research Center and its test center at Plum Brook, both in the north. East of Ohio. Cole contacted SpaceFlight Insider and asked to join SFI as the first member of the organization's "Glenn Team".