TIR . The Atlas V rocket two-story United Launch Alliance, carrying the unmanned Cygnus capsule, was torn from its launch pad of the base of the US Air Force at Cape Kennedy. It was 11:05 p.m. (3:05 GMT Wednesday), at the opening of a 30-minute launch window, as live television images of NASA. The orbiting Cygnus occurred 21 minutes later, confirmed the control center. The vessel was then deploy its two solar antennas before starting his chase to reach the ISS on Saturday. Cygnus will be moored at 10:40 GMT at the orbital outpost with the robotic arm of the Station led by two of the six crew members of the ISS. Below is the video of the launch.
Credit: NASA / Kennedy
Successful cooperation
This is the fifth supply mission to the ISS by Cygnus on behalf of NASA and the second since the December 2015 marked the return to flight of the spaceship Orbital ATK from its Antares launcher explosion shortly after takeoff in Oct. 2014 from the space center Wallops Island on the coast of Virginia. Orbital has yet to make two more cargo missions to the ISS in 2016 as part of a contract of $ 1.9 billion with NASA. The next launch will be in early summer 2016 aboard Antares from central Wallops. For his second flight, this improved version of Cygnus, with an increased capacity of 25%, will deliver 3.6 tons of cargo to the ISS, including food, water, clothing for the crew six astronauts as well as equipment and materials for dozens of scientific experiments. “It’s like Christmas when a supply ship arrives at the station” , had commented before launching Dan Tani, an official of the mission in Orbital and a former astronaut of NASA who stayed in the ISS.
GECKOS . Cygnus particular carries an instrument for the first time will determine from space the chemical composition of meteors entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The pressurized vessel also brings a new 3D printer and a demonstrator of a new adhesive technology inspired by microscopic hairs on the feet of geckos, small lizards that can walk hanging from a ceiling. This technique could one day fit hands and feet of robots that will move outside the spacecraft to perform inspections and repairs.
To cause a fire inside Cygnus
Cygnus will remain docked to the ISS for two months. Once the astronauts will charge the capsule waste and other discarded equipment, the ship will be separated from the station and once it is far enough away, engineers at NASA intentionally trigger a fire on board to assess the size of the flames spread, measure the heat and gas emissions in weightlessness. This life-size fire unprecedented in a spaceship in orbit, will provide valuable data considered for current and future safety of astronaut crews, said Gary Ruff, an aerospace engineer at Glenn Research Center (Ohio) NASA a major contributor to this experience called “Saffire 1″. “NASA will be able to begin to develop better fire detection systems in spacecraft and new protection equipment for astronauts” , has he said. A few days after this experience, Cygnus will plunge into the atmosphere and disintegrate over the Pacific Ocean. Another cargo mission to the ISS is planned on April 8 with the Dragon capsule, the SpaceX company, to be launched from Cape Canaveral aboard its Falcon rocket 9. It will be the first flight of Dragon to the ISS since the explosion of the launcher 28 June 2015. This will however be the fourth launch for Falcon 9 since the accident. Falcon 9 has conducted three flights from 22 December 2015 to place in orbit several satellites successfully.
No comments:
Post a Comment