posted 07-01-2024 06:45 PM               

Northrop Grumman names Cygnus cargo craft for fallen Challenger commander

The commander of the ill-fated flight of space shuttle Challenger is being remembered 40 years after his first spaceflight with a commercial spacecraft bearing his name.

NASA astronaut Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, who flew twice on Challenger — first as its pilot in 1984 and then as commander two years later — is the namesake for Northrop Grumman's 21st cargo vehicle.

posted 07-30-2024 04:00 PM               

Northrop Grumman’s 21st Station Resupply Launch

NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 3, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This launch is the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency.

Filled with nearly 8,200 pounds of supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, carried on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Early morning on Monday, Aug. 5, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps will act as backup to Dominick. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port.

Highlights of space station research facilitated by delivery aboard this Cygnus are:

• Test articles to evaluate liquid and gas flow through porous media found in space station life support systems.
  
• A balloon, penny, and hexnut for a new STEMonstration on centripetal force.
  
• Microorganisms known as Rotifers to examine the effects of spaceflight on DNA repair mechanisms.
  
• A bioreactor to demonstrate the production of many high-quality blood and immune stem cells.
  
• Vascularized liver tissue to analyze the development of blood vessels in engineered tissue flown to the space station.

NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative also is sending two CubeSats to deploy from the orbiting laboratory, CySat-1 from Iowa State University and DORA (Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture) from Arizona State University, making up ELaNa 52 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites).

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until January when it will depart the orbiting laboratory at which point it will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. This spacecraft is named the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee after the former NASA astronaut.

posted 08-03-2024 09:51 AM               

Due to unfavorable weather, we are standing down from today's (Ag. 3) launch of Northrop Grumman's NG-21 mission.

SpaceX is targeting Sunday, August 4 for Falcon 9's launch of Northrop Grumman’s 21st Cygnus mission (NG-21) to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 11:02 a.m. EDT.

posted 08-04-2024 08:31 AM               

NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are now targeting no earlier than 11:02 a.m. EDT (1502 UTC) on Sunday, Aug. 4, for liftoff of Northrop Grumman's uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft, carried on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

posted 08-04-2024 12:10 PM               

Mission Control just alerted the ISS crew to a possible issue with the Cygnus cargo ship:

"Just to let you guys know, good comm with Cygnus, we're going to have solar array deploy in about an hour. The first two burns were not performed by Cygnus, so they're re-assessing what's the current state of the burn plan. We're hoping to still keep Tuesday (for capture by ISS), but we'll re-assess once we figure out what went wrong with the first two burns."

posted 08-04-2024 01:54 PM               

The ISS crew just asked for a Cygnus update; the mission control CAPCOM replied:

"We just got word the solar arrays are deployed on Cygnus successfully, so that's good news. Also, on the previous burns, sounds like (not understandable) erroneously stopped the burns.

The Cygnus team thinks that the engines are still good, and so now it's just a matter of coming up with a new burn plan to try to still get (capture on) Tuesday. So they're still working on that. They probably won't have that by the time you go to sleep, so by the time you wake up, we'll know what the plan is."

ISS crew member Mike Barratt replied: "OK, that sounds like great news, and we'll tell Matt and Jeanette to keep practicing that (robot arm) capture."

posted 08-04-2024 04:11 PM               

Cygnus completes solar arrays deployment

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft completed the deployment of its two solar arrays at 2:21 p.m. EDT after launching at 11:02 a.m. Aug. 4 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to the International Space Station for NASA.

Shortly after launch, the spacecraft missed its first burn slated for 11:44 a.m. due to a late entry to burn sequencing. Known as the targeted altitude burn, or TB1, it was rescheduled for 12:34 p.m., but aborted the maneuver shortly after the engine ignited due to a slightly low initial pressure state. There is no indication the engine itself has any problem at this time.

Cygnus is at a safe altitude, and Northrop Grumman engineers are working a new burn and trajectory plan. The team aims to achieve the spacecraft's original capture time on station, which is currently slated for 3:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

If all remains on track, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will capture Cygnus using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm with NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps as his backup. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module's Earth-facing port.

posted 08-05-2024 02:07 PM               

Cygnus continues to space station

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft continues on its way to the International Space Station.

The Cygnus spacecraft has completed two delta velocity burns, and it remains on track for a capture by the space station's robotic arm slated for 3:10 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The spacecraft is in a safe trajectory, and all other systems are operating normally.

Shortly after launch on Sunday, the spacecraft performed as designed by cancelling a scheduled engine burn due to a slightly low initial pressure reading flagged by the Cygnus onboard detection system. Engineers at Northrop Grumman's mission control center in Dulles, Virginia evaluated the pressure reading, confirmed it was acceptable and re-worked the burn plan to arrive at the space station on the originally planned schedule.

posted 08-06-2024 08:06 AM               

Cygnus arrives at space station

Expedition 71 flight engineer Matthew Dominick captured Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft using the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm on Tuesday (Aug. 6) at 3:11 a.m. EDT (0711 GMT), as the station was flying about 260 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean.

Flight controllers in Houston then installed the Cygnus on the Unity node at 5:33 a.m. EDT (0933 GMT).

posted 03-28-2025 08:35 AM               

Cygnus departs space station

At 6:55 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT) on Friday (March 28), the S.S. Richard "Dick" Scobee Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft was released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which earlier detached Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station's Unity module. At the time of release, the station was flying about 260 miles (418 kilometers) over the Pacific Ocean.

Following a deorbit engine firing on Sunday (March 30), Cygnus will begin a planned destructive re-entry, in which the spacecraft – filled with trash packed by the station crew – will safely burn up in Earth's atmosphere.