The Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus commercial cargo craft has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on its Orbital-1 resupply mission. NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins captured Cygnus with the station’s robotic arm at 6:08 a.m. EST Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014. He and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio worked quickly and opened the resupply craft’s hatches 6 hours later.
The Expedition 38 NASA astronauts were joined in the cupola by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata during Cygnus’ arrival. After its capture, Wakata took over the controls of the Canadarm2 and berthed Cygnus to the Harmony node’s Earth-facing port. Wakata then checked for pressure leaks while Mastracchio bolted and latched Cygnus to Harmony.
After Cygnus was launched into orbit by Orbital’s Antares rocket on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, it completed a series of thruster firings and other maneuvers bringing the spacecraft in close proximity to the ISS. Final approach to the station began at about 3:00 a.m. (EST) Sunday morning, culminating with the station’s robotic arm grappling the spacecraft at 6:08 a.m. when it was about 30ft (10m) from the ISS. Cygnus was then guided to its berthing port on the nadir side of the ISS’ Harmony module where its installation was completed at 8:05 a.m.
“Our first mission under the CRS contract with NASA was flawlessly executed by our Antares and Cygnus operations team, from the picture-perfect launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to the rendezvous, capture, and berthing at the space station this morning,” said David W. Thompson, Orbital’s president and CEO. “From the men and women involved in the design, integration and test, to those who launched the Antares and operated the Cygnus, our whole team has performed at a very high level for our NASA customer and I am very proud of their extraordinary efforts.”
Cygnus is delivering approximately 2,780 lb (1,260kg) of cargo and science payloads to the Expedition 38 astronauts, including crew provisions and scientific gear. The first experiment unloaded was the Ant Forage Habitat Facility which will study ant behavior and colonization in microgravity. The student experiment could provide solutions to real world problems such as routing cargo traffic and scheduling airline flights.
Cygnus will stay attached to the Harmony node for the next 5 weeks when it will be released Feb. 18 with approximately 2,800 lb (1,300kg) of disposable cargo. The commercial cargo craft will descend into the Earth’s atmosphere Feb. 19 for a safe, destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean.
Under a $1.9 billion CRS contract with NASA, Orbital will use Antares and Cygnus to deliver up to 44,000 lb (20,000kg) of cargo to the ISS over eight missions, including the mission currently underway, through late 2016. For these missions, NASA will manifest a variety of essential items based on ISS program needs, including food, clothing, crew supplies, spare parts and equipment, and scientific experiments.
Sources: Orbital Sciences, NASA