Monthly Archives: April 2017

A workhorse Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Tuesday and boosted an Orbital ATK cargo ship into space carrying more than 7,600 pounds of supplies, equipment and research hardware bound for the International Space Station.

Running a month late because of hydraulic problems and scheduling conflicts, the boosters Russian-built RD-180 main engine thundered to life at 11:11 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), throttled up to full thrust and quickly pushed the United Launch Alliance rocket away from complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The International Space Station passed to the east of Cape Canaveral a few minutes before launch and the Atlas 5 took off almost directly into the plane of the labs orbit, a requirement for spacecraft trying to rendezvous with a target moving through space at some five miles per second.

Initially flying straight up, the 191-foot-tall Atlas 5 quickly arced away to the northeast, climbing out of the thick lower atmosphere atop the RD-180s 860,200 pounds of thrust. A little more than a minute later, the rocket was traveling faster than sound, rapidly shedding weight and accelerating as it consumed it load of first stage propellants.

Passing through 10,000 mph, the first stage engine shut down as planned four minutes and 15 seconds after liftoff and the spent stage fell away.

A camera on the rockets Centaur second stage captures the Atlas 5s first stage falling back to Earth moments after separation.

NASA

The hydrogen-fueled Aerojet Rocketdyne engine powering the Centaur second stage then flashed to life and burned for nearly 14 minutes to complete the climb to a 142-mile-high roughly circular orbit tilted 51.6 degrees to the equator, the same as the space stations.

Three minutes later, the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship, named in honor of John Glenn, the first American in orbit, was released from the Centaur to fly on its own.

We are very proud of that fact, that this spacecraft is named after my former fellow astronaut John Glenn, a real pioneer in the space world who launched for the first time out of here on an Atlas rocket, said Frank Culbertson, a former shuttle commander who manages Orbitals Space Systems Group. Its a great tribute to John to be able to take his name to orbit once again.

A bit more than two hours after launch, the Cygnus, also known as the SS John Glenn, deployed its two solar arrays and engineers reported the spacecraft was healthy and ready to begin a four-day rendezvous.

Status of the spacecraft is great, everything is working well, Culbertson said. Weve got the prop system pressurized, the power system is up, we deployed the solar arrays. ... The team is in control, and we are beginning our approach to the space station.

It was Orbitals seventh operational resupply launch under an initial $1.9 billion contract from NASA calling for eight flights through 2016. NASA later bought three additional flights and Orbital won a second contract for at least six more missions through 2024.

SpaceX holds similar resupply contracts using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ships.

Orbital ATK normally launches Cygnus cargo ships atop its own Antares rocket, but in the wake of a 2014 launch failure, the company bought two Atlas 5s from ULA to launch two resupply missions while the Antares was being equipped with new engines.

The redesigned booster successfully flew last October, but Orbital bought a third more powerful -- and expensive -- Atlas 5 to help NASA get additional supplies to the station faster than would otherwise be possible.

Resupply spacecraft typically rendezvous with the station over two to three days, but the Cygnus, launched into an orbit more than 100 miles below its 250-mile-high target, will loiter in orbit until Saturday morning, staying well away from the space lab until after the arrival of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Thursday morning.

The Soyuz MS-04/50S spacecraft, carrying vehicle commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Jack Fischer, is being readied for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:13 a.m. EDT Thursday. Docking at the stations upper Poisk module is expected around 9:23 a.m. that same morning.

Yurchikhin and Fischer will join Expedition 50 commander Peggy Whitson, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Soyuz MS-03 commander Oleg Novitskiy.

Assuming the Soyuz docks on schedule, the Cygnus spacecraft will make its own approach to the space station early Saturday, pulling up to within about 30 feet just after 6 a.m. and then standing by while Whitson and Pesquet, operating the stations robot arm, lock onto a grapple fixture.

At that point, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will take over to pull the Cygnus in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the central Unity module.

The cargo ship is loaded with some 7,625 pounds of cargo and equipment, including more than 2,000 pounds of science gear, 2,100 pounds of crew supplies and nearly 2,700 pounds of vehicle hardware. Also on board: 160 pounds of spacewalk equipment, about 40 pounds of Russian hardware and 38 small research satellites.

Thirty four of those Cubesats will be launched from the space station while four will be deployed from the Cygnus.

We have a wide range of support equipment thats going to be headed to station to support the science thats up there already but also to introduce some brand new capabilities and some exciting new research to the station, said Tara Ruttley, space station associate program scientist at the Johnson Space Center.

Among the cargo is an advanced plant habitat, the largest production facility for plants ever on the space station, Ruttley said. Its going to be able to grow larger plants, and larger plants lead to things like food production kind of crops.

In the near term, scientists will evaluate how well the plant facility operates with its ability to control lighting, humidity, temperature, water flow and a wide variety of other factors.

Eventually, as we understand how this habitat functions, Id imagine we will evolve into crops and edible foods, Ruttley said.

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Commercial cargo ship launched to space station - CBS News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. John Glenn's trailblazing legacy took flight Tuesday as a cargo ship bearing his name rocketed toward the International Space Station.

An Atlas rocket provided the late morning lift to orbit, just as it did for Glenn 55 years ago.

The commercial cargo ship, dubbed the S.S. John Glenn, holds nearly 7,700 pounds of food, equipment and research for the space station. It's due there Saturday, two days after the arrival of two fresh astronauts.

NASA's shipper, Orbital ATK, asked Glenn's widow, Annie, for permission to use his name for the spacecraft, following his December death.

Glenn, an original Mercury 7 astronaut, became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. He launched again in 1998 aboard shuttle Discovery at age 77, the oldest person ever in space. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery two weeks ago.

"It is clearly a chance one more time to show John Glenn's name emblazoned in space," said Frank Culbertson, a former astronaut who now heads Orbital ATK's space systems group.

Glenn was a courageous, pioneering leader who always promoted space and set a good example, Culbertson noted. "And I hope that putting his name on the space station is an inspiration to the next generation to aspire to do similar things, push the boundaries," he said.

Besides supplies, the capsule contains a banner showing Glenn in his orange space shuttle launch suit it's the first thing the station astronauts will see when they open the craft as well as memorabilia for his family. Because the launch was delayed a month by hydraulic problems at the pad and on the rocket, no Glenn family members were able to make it to Cape Canaveral, according to Culbertson.

Orbital ATK one of NASA's prime delivery services for the space station, along with SpaceX normally uses its own Virginia-based Antares rockets to launch its Cygnus cargo ships, named after the swan constellation. But it opted for the United Launch Alliance's bigger Atlas V rocket in order to carry up a heftier load. A new, larger greenhouse is flying up, along with equipment needed for a spacewalk next month.

"Looks like we nailed the orbit once again," said Vern Thorp, a manager for the rocket maker.

NASA's 360-degree video streaming of the launch the first such attempt for a live broadcast didn't go as well. Something went wrong moments before liftoff, and the video skipped over the actual rising of the rocket from the pad. NASA said it would try again, perhaps on an upcoming SpaceX delivery mission.

Mission Control beamed up the launch broadcast for the three astronauts at the space station, which is orbiting 250 miles high. The American, Russian and Frenchman will be joined Thursday by another American and Russian who will take off from Kazakhstan.

SpaceX and Boeing are developing new capsules that could fly U.S. astronauts to the space station as early as next year. Boeing's Starliner capsule will fly on the Atlas V.

It was the last launch commentary for NASA spokesman George Diller, who is retiring next month after 37 years. His was the voice at liftoff for the final space shuttle flight, by Atlantis, in 2011, as well as the send-off of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and all five Hubble-servicing missions hundreds of rocket launches in all.

"We're really, really going to miss hearing your golden voice on console during launch, George," said Kennedy Space Center's director, Robert Cabana, patting him on the back.

Diller said his time at the space agency has been a "heck of a ride."

"I couldn't do better if I'd been riding a rocket."

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John Glenn honored with launch of space station supply ship - Northwest Herald

By Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL John Glenn's trailblazing legacy took flight Tuesday as a cargo ship bearing his name rocketed toward the International Space Station.

An Atlas rocket provided the late morning lift to orbit, just as it did for Glenn 55 years ago.

The commercial cargo ship, dubbed the S.S. John Glenn, holds nearly 7,700 pounds of food, equipment and research for the space station. It's due there Saturday, two days after the arrival of two fresh astronauts.

NASA's shipper, Orbital ATK, asked Glenn's widow, Annie, for permission to use his name for the spacecraft, following his December death.

Glenn, an original Mercury 7 astronaut, became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. He launched again in 1998 aboard shuttle Discovery at age 77, the oldest person ever in space. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery two weeks ago.

"It is clearly a chance one more time to show John Glenn's name emblazoned in space," said Frank Culbertson, a former astronaut who now heads Orbital ATK's space systems group.

Glenn was a courageous, pioneering leader who always promoted space and set a good example, Culbertson noted. "And I hope that putting his name on the space station is an inspiration to the next generation to aspire to do similar things, push the boundaries," he said.

Besides supplies, the capsule contains a banner showing Glenn in his orange space shuttle launch suit it's the first thing the station astronauts will see when they open the craft as well as memorabilia for his family. Because the launch was delayed a month by hydraulic problems at the pad and on the rocket, no Glenn family members were able to make it to Cape Canaveral, according to Culbertson.

Orbital ATK one of NASA's prime delivery services for the space station, along with SpaceX normally uses its own Virginia-based Antares rockets to launch its Cygnus cargo ships, named after the swan constellation. But it opted for the United Launch Alliance's bigger Atlas V rocket in order to carry up a heftier load. A new, larger greenhouse is flying up, along with equipment needed for a spacewalk next month.

"Looks like we nailed the orbit once again," said Vern Thorp, a manager for the rocket maker.

NASA's 360-degree video streaming of the launch the first such attempt for a live broadcast didn't go as well. Something went wrong moments before liftoff, and the video skipped over the actual rising of the rocket from the pad. NASA said it would try again, perhaps on an upcoming SpaceX delivery mission.

Mission Control beamed up the launch broadcast for the three astronauts at the space station, which is orbiting 250 miles high. The American, Russian and Frenchman will be joined Thursday by another American and Russian who will take off from Kazakhstan.

SpaceX and Boeing are developing new capsules that could fly U.S. astronauts to the space station as early as next year. Boeing's Starliner capsule will fly on the Atlas V.

It was the last launch commentary for NASA spokesman George Diller, who is retiring next month after 37 years. His was the voice at liftoff for the final space shuttle flight, by Atlantis, in 2011, as well as the send-off of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and all five Hubble-servicing missions hundreds of rocket launches in all.

"We're really, really going to miss hearing your golden voice on console during launch, George," said Kennedy Space Center's director, Robert Cabana, patting him on the back.

Diller said his time at the space agency has been a "heck of a ride."

"I couldn't do better if I'd been riding a rocket."

Online: NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html; Orbital ATK: https://www.orbitalatk.com/

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Glenn honored with launch of space station supply ship - News Chief

Belfast Telegraph

John Glenn honoured with launch of space station supply ship Belfast Telegraph The commercial cargo ship, dubbed the SS John Glenn, holds nearly 3,500kg of food, equipment and research for the space station. It is due there on Saturday, two days after the arrival of two fresh astronauts. Nasa's shipper, Orbital ATK, asked Glenn's ... and more »

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John Glenn honoured with launch of space station supply ship - Belfast Telegraph

Lafayette's Centaurus High is making its mark in space after the successful launch today of 7,600 pounds of crew supplies and science gear to the International Space Station, which includes an experiment designed and built by the school's engineering students.

The origins of the experiment, which aims to study the effects of simulated gravity on bacterial lag phase in a micro-gravitational environment, date back to the spring of 2014, and roughly 20 Centaurus engineering students have had a hand in bringing it to fruition.

Lag phase is the period when bacteria are adjusting to an environment.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus module launched successfully at 9:11 a.m. MDT today atop an Atlas V rocket and performed well, according to Vern Thorp, United Launch Alliance's program manager for commercial missions.

"It was a beautiful launch," Thorp said in a statement posted to the NASA website. "It looks like we nailed the orbit once again. At this time, it looks like a very good orbit insertion."

The Cygnus module is expected to arrive at the ISS about 4:05 a.m. MDT Saturday as it passes over southern France. The crew will use the complex's robotic arm to grab Cygnus and attach it to the station.

Centaurus has more than one connection to the current ISS missions. Launching from Florida about 1:13 a.m. MDT Thursday will be 1992 Centaurus graduate Jack Fischer, of Louisville, along with crew member Fyodor Yurchikhin, of the Russian Space agency Roscosmos.

Fischer and Yurchikhin will arrive at the ISS well ahead of the cargo module, with an expected docking at the space station of about 7:05 a.m. Colorado time on Thursday, about six hours after liftoff.

Also onboard the launch from Cape Canaveral was a University of Colorado student-built microsatellite named "Challenger." It is part of the European Union sponsored QB50 project to deploy a network of miniaturized satellites to study part of Earth's atmosphere.

The launch was followed via NASA TV today by Centaurus engineering teacher Brian Thomas and about 60 Centaurus engineering students and a half dozen other teachers.

"We're very excited," Thomas said about 90 minutes after liftoff. "We were cheering as it took off. My heart's still beating. I've still got butterflies in my chest from this one. It was really a special thing."

The Centaurus experiment has had a challenging road to fruition, after the first version of the experiment landed in the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the explosion of the SpaceX CRS-7 unmanned resupply mission shortly after liftoff on June 28, 2015. The experiment was rebuilt during the 2015-16 school year - with some modification requested by NASA and readied once again for its date with space.

"The last time it went off, it was two minutes in, before it exploded," Thomas said. "So, even when it launched today, we were still holding our breath a little, until everyone said it was looking good and it's still on its way."

Thomas and his student team hope that at the space station, their experiment will be supervised by Fischer, who is expected to be at the ISS for about five months.

"That's all under NASA's control," Thomas said. "For our experiment, there has to be a swapping of our bacteria samples we have four total sets and we needed an astronaut to do that.

"Jack really wanted to be the one, and I can't imagine any reason why he wouldn't be. Hopefully, that's what he'll be doing, and hopefully he'll snap a selfie that he can send us."

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan

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Lafayette's Centaurus High has an experiment on way to space ... - Boulder Daily Camera

An unmanned Orbital ATK cargo ship rocket packed with food and supplies for the astronauts living at the International Space Station blasted off Tuesday from a NASA launch pad.

The barrel-shaped Cygnus spacecraft, nestled atop a white Atlas V rocket, soared into the blue sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 11:11 am (1511 GMT).

"Liftoff of the Atlas V rocket with Cygnus and the S.S. John Glenn, extending the research legacy for living and working in space," said US space agency commentator George Diller.

The cargo ship was named after John Glenn, the famed astronaut who was the first American to orbit the Earth and who died last year at age 95.

"Cygnus is healthy and both solar arrays are deployed," Orbital ATK said in a statement later in the day.

The mission is the company's seventh as part of a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to ferry supplies to the orbiting outpost.

SpaceX also has a cargo contract with NASA worth $1.6 billion.

The Cygnus spacecraft is loaded with 7,626 pounds (3,459 kilograms) of crew supplies, hardware and dozens of experiments aimed at studying fire, growing food and cancer therapies.

- Plants and fire -

It contains the Advanced Plant Habitat, which will help astronauts grow food and practice techniques for sustaining themselves on future long duration flights.

The spacecraft is also carrying 38 small satellites called Cube Sats, which will be deployed later on.

The Cygnus should arrive at the station on April 22, after the scheduled docking Thursday of a Russian Soyuz spaceship carrying cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and American astronaut Jack Fischer.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Peggy Whitson of NASA will operate the space station's robotic arm to grab the Cygnus and bring it in to berth at the lab at 6:05 am (1005 GMT) on Saturday, NASA said.

After the astronauts unpack the Cygnus, they will reload it with trash that will burn up along with the spacecraft upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere on July 25.

But before its mission comes to a fiery end, Cygnus will spend a couple of hours running an automated experiment to see how a large-scale fire acts in microgravity.

"While in space, after traveling a safe distance from the station, the fire is lit and data is collected before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere," said a statement from NASA.

Known as Saffire-III, the experiment is the third in a series and aims to better understand how fire acts in space in order to safeguard future space missions.

"The experiment lasts about two-and-a-half hours, of which 20 minutes is the actual burn of a fabric panel measuring 0.4 meters (yards) wide by one meter long."

A 360-degree live stream of the launch was broadcast on http://youtube.com/nasatelevision.

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Orbital ATK launches cargo to space station - Space Daily

USA Today Network James Dean, Florida Today Published 12:23 p.m. ET April 18, 2017 | Updated 15 hours ago

Launched from Cape Canaveral on board an Atlas V rocket, the next round of supplies and experiments for the International Space Station. (April 18) AP

An Atlas V rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, April 18, 2017.(Photo: Craig Bailey, Florida Today)

CAPE CANAVERALGodspeed, SSJohn Glenn.

An unmanned cargo ship named in honor of the pioneering astronaut is on its way to the International Space Station after launching from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday atop a modern version of the Atlas rocket Glenn rode into orbit in 1962.

United Launch Alliances 19-story Atlas V thundered from Cape Canaveral Air Force Stations Launch Complex 41 at 11:11 a.m. ET Tuesday, punching through a few puffy clouds as it angled northeastover the Atlantic Ocean.

Twenty-one minutes later, an Orbital ATK Cygnus craft packed with more than 7,600 pounds of food, supplies and experiments separated from the rockets Centaur upper stage.

Related:What to know about Tuesday's Atlas V rocket launch

Just a fantastic launch, said Joel Montalbano, deputy manager of NASA's International Space Station program.

Rendezvous at the research outpost orbiting 250 miles overhead is planned around 6 a.m. Saturday, two days after a NASA astronaut and Russian cosmonaut are scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan and join three Expedition 51 crew members onthe station.

Research aboard the Cygnus includesa minifridge-sized plant growth chamber led by KSC, tests of a chemotherapy drug that could better target cancer cellsand a student experiment analyzingDNA to study the aging process.

Other equipment includes gear needed for aspacewalk planned next monthand 38 tiny satellites called CubeSats that will deployfrom either the station or the Cygnus.

Also on board: Easter treats.

The resupply mission originally was scheduled to launch a month ago, but was delayed by problems with hydraulics on ground systems and on the rockets main engine.

We are sorry we missed Easter, but were pretty sure (the astronauts will) be excited about their Easter baskets, said Frank Culbertson, head of Orbital ATKs Space Systems Group.

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Orbital ATK has named each of its Cygnus spacecraft in tribute to influential astronauts.

Glenn, the Mercury astronaut and former U.S. senator who died last December at 95, was the first American to orbit Earth at the dawn of the space race with the Soviet Union, and later became the oldest person in space as a 77-year-old crew member aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1998.

Culbertson, a former NASA astronaut, called Glenn's missions "pathfinding and groundbreaking," particularly the first one flown with a "primitive" Atlas rocket and Friendship 7 capsule.

"Its a real honor for us to be associated with such an American hero and a pioneer in the space program," he said. "He always set a great example for Americans American youth, American technologyin pushing us beyond what we have been able to do in the past. I hope that putting his name on the space stationis an inspiration to the next generation to aspire do similar things: Push the boundaries."

The Cygnus carried mementos for Glenn's family, who could not attend the launch due to its delays.

Launch teams on Tuesday also paid tribute to a longtime voice of NASA launches,George Diller. A member of Kennedy Space Center's public affairs team since 1979, Diller called his final liftoff on NASA TV before he retiresnext month.

"Its been a good heck of a ride," he said afterward of his career. "I couldnt do better if Id have been riding a rocket."

Tuesdays launch was the seventh of 11 Cygnus missions under a NASA Commercial Resupply Services contract worth more than $2billion. It was third of those missions launched by ULAs Atlas V, which can lift heavier loads thanOrbital ATKs own Antares rocket based on Virginias Eastern Shore. The next Antares launch is targeted for September.

ULA completed its fourth launchthis year. Its next launch, of a NASA tracking and data relay satellite,is planned in early August.

SpaceX is next up on the Eastern Range. A Falcon 9 rocket is targeting an April 30 launch of a classified National Reconnaissance Office mission from Kennedy Space Centers pad 39A, and a booster landing back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Related:Space salad? Plant experiment hitching a ride to space station

Follow James Dean on Twitter:@flatoday_jdean

360 Glitch

A launch pad camera promoted as providing the first 360-degree views of a rocket launch wasn't quite ready for prime time Tuesday as a United Launch AllianceAtlas V blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with nearly 900,000 pounds of thrust.

Starting about 10 minutes before the 11:11 a.m. liftoff, viewers on NASA TV's YouTube channel could manipulate the image to pan around Launch Complex 41 and look up and down the 19-story rocket. But the picture froze in the countdown's final seconds, and when itfinally refreshed, the rocket was gone.

"This is the first time that this has ever been attempted and while the 360 degreeswould have been a unique look at launch, we still have incredible video of today's successful liftoff of the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station from multiple other cameras that provide a variety of views," said United Launch Alliance spokeswoman LynChassagne. "We will review today's 360-degreesetup and endeavor to bring this new perspective of a rocket launch to everyone in the future."

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Atlas V rocket has successful launch to space station - USA TODAY