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Astronaut Megan McArthur Commands Robotic Arm to Capture Cygnus

At 6:07 a.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur used the International Space Station’s robotic Canadarm2 to grapple the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet monitored Cygnus systems during its approach. The spacecraft were flying about 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Lisbon, Portugal, at the time of capture.

Next, ground controllers will command the station’s arm to rotate and install Cygnus, dubbed the S.S. Ellison Onizuka, on the bottom of the station’s Unity module.

NASA Television coverage of installation will begin at 8 a.m., and installation of the Cygnus spacecraft to the space station is expected to be completed later this morning. Cygnus will remain at the orbiting laboratory for a three-month stay.

Learn more about space station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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Cygnus Approaching Station Now Live on NASA TV

A Northrop Grumman cargo ship carrying more than 8,200 pounds of science and research investigations, supplies, and hardware is set to arrive at the International Space Station early this morning. The uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft launched at 5:56 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 10 on an Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

NASA Television coverage of capture has begun. Watch live on the NASA app or at www.nasa.gov/live 

When Cygnus arrives, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur will use the space station’s robotic Canadarm2 to capture it while ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet monitors telemetry during rendezvous, capture, and installation on the Earth-facing port of the Unity module.

Northrop Grumman named the Cygnus spacecraft for this resupply mission in honor of former NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka, who was the first Asian American astronaut. Onizuka was hired in 1978 in the first class of diverse astronauts, and his first spaceflight was aboard space shuttle Discovery in January 1985 for STS-51-C. He lost his life aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Learn more about space station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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Cygnus on its Way to Station as Crew Maintains Research

The Expedition 65 crew is getting ready for the arrival of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft when it arrives Thursday morning. The International Space Station residents also continued microgravity research while preparing for an upcoming spacewalk today.

NASA TV will begin its broadcast of the Cygnus space freighter’s approach and rendezvous on Thursday at 4:45 a.m. EDT. NASA Flight Engineer Megan McArthur will be on duty in the cupola, the orbiting lab’s “window to the world,” and command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to grapple Cygnus at about 6:10 a.m. ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough will be on hand monitoring spacecraft activities and assisting her in the cupola.

After McArthur and Pesquet complete the capture activities, robotics controllers in Mission Control will remotely guide Cygnus in the grips of the Canadarm2 and install it to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port. Additionally, cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov are gathering excess Russian hardware today for disposal in Cygnus after its arrival.

McArthur and Pesquet had time for research work during the morning before spending the afternoon training for Cygnus’ arrival. McArthur injected algae into sample cassettes to nourish tardigrades, or “water bears,” being observed for their ability to survive extreme conditions. Pesquet focused on an experiment challenging European students to write computer code targeting conditions aboard spacecraft.

Commander Akihiko Hoshide and Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei continued servicing U.S. spacesuits ahead of a spacewalk to prepare the Port-4 truss structure for more roll out solar array installation work. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough cleaned and inspected vent fans in the Unity module and U.S. Quest airlock.

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Mark Garcia

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