10 Years Ago: The First Operational Cygnus Cargo Mission to the Space Station

To replace the cargo and crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, the United States developed a novel approach to procure those services from American commercial entities. On Jan. 9, 2014, Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of two companies selected initially to provide cargo transportation services, launched the first operational mission of its Cygnus spacecraft. During its one-month stay at the space station, the onboard Expedition 38 crew unloaded its cargo and then filled it with trash and unneeded equipment before releasing it for a destructive reentry. The novel approach of the government procuring services provided by private companies opened a new chapter in human space exploration.

Timeline of the first phase of Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) activities.

On Jan. 14, 2004, President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). In addition to proposing a return to the Moon, the VSE saw the retirement of the space shuttle after completing space station assembly. The VSE encouraged NASA to acquire commercial cargo services to the space station as soon as practical, and NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin established the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO) in November 2005. The program inaugurated a new business model for the space agency that instead of traditional procurement contracts with private enterprise to deliver hardware and services, NASA now relied on the companies investing their own capital to develop the needed spacecraft and rockets. The agency then purchased the transportation services from the companies. The C3PO devised a two-phase process to develop cargo resupply services to the space station – the Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) program for commercial entities to develop and demonstrate reliable commercial services followed by the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program to actually deliver cargo to the space station. On Aug. 18, 2006, NASA announced that Space Exploration Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) had won the first round of the COTS competition and signed Space Act Agreements (SAAs) with the two companies. In October 2007, NASA terminated the agreement with RpK since the company hadn’t raised enough capital. Following a second round of competitions, NASA selected and signed a SAA with Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital) of Dulles, Virginia, on Feb. 19, 2008.

Left: Workers integrate the Cygnus mass simulator with its Antares launch vehicle. Right: First launch of an Antares rocket in 2013, carrying a Cygnus mass simulator.

Italian aerospace company Thales Alenia Space built Orbital’s Cygnus cargo vehicle, relying on its experience building the European Space Agency’s Columbus research module and the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules for the space station. Orbital developed the two-stage Antares rocket to launch the Cygnus spacecraft. On Dec. 23, 2008, NASA announced the award of the first CRS contracts to SpaceX for 12 space station resupply missions using its Dragon spacecraft and to Orbital for eight missions, in 2015 adding eight more Dragon and three more Cygnus flights. On Jan. 14, 2016, a second CRS-2 contract not only guaranteed at least six more SpaceX and Orbital missions but also added a third contractor, Sparks, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corporation to provide at least six flights of a cargo version of their Dream Chaser reusable space plane. Orbital launched the first test flight of its Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, on April 21, 2013, with a test payload to simulate the mass of a Cygnus spacecraft. The mission’s objectives did not include approaching the space station and the mass simulator burned up on reentry on May 10.

Left: Liftoff of the Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus Demo 1 mission. Middle: Cygnus Demo spacecraft grappled by Canadarm2 prior to berthing on the space station. Right: Expedition 37 crew member Luca S. Parmitano of the European Space Agency inside the Cygnus spacecraft during its Demo mission to the space station.

Orbital carried out a single demonstration mission, designated Cygnus Demo 1, launching on Sep. 18, 2013. The company began a tradition of naming their spacecraft after deceased astronauts or other aerospace notables, christening this first one the G. David Low after the former astronaut and Orbital employee who died in 2008. Orbital executive and Low’s fellow Class of 1984 astronaut Frank L. Culbertson said during a preflight press conference, “We were very proud to name [it] the G. David Low.” Eleven days after its launch, Expedition 37 crew member Luca S. Parmitano from the European Space Agency grappled the spacecraft with the Canadarm2 remote manipulator system and berthed it to the station’s Node 2 Harmony module’s nadir or Earth facing port. The crew unloaded the 1,543 pounds of supplies that it brought and on Oct. 22 unberthed it, loaded with 2,850 pounds of cargo for disposal. The next day, Cygnus fired its engine to begin the fiery reentry over the Pacific Ocean. The mission completed Orbital’s flight certification for its cargo vehicle.

Left: Liftoff of the first operational Cygnus cargo resupply mission. Middle: The space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm about to capture the first operational Cygnus spacecraft named SS C. Gordon Fullerton. Right: The first Enhanced Cygnus arriving at the space station in 2015; compare against the smaller standard Cygnus.

The mission patch for Orbital’s first operational cargo resupply mission to the space station.

The first operational Cygnus mission, designated Orb-1, got underway on Jan. 9, 2014. The spacecraft named after NASA astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton, who died the previous year, arrived at the space station three days later. Expedition 38 crew member NASA astronaut Michael S. Hopkins used Canadarm2 to grapple and berth it to the Harmony module. The onboard crew unloaded the 2,780 pounds of supplies that the spacecraft brought to the station and unberthed it on Feb. 18. It disposed of 3,240 pounds of trash and other unneeded cargo. To date, 19 Cygnus spacecraft have lofted more than 64 tons of logistics to the space station, with only one launch failure, the Orb-3 mission in October 2014. This launch failure and one with SpaceX in June 2015 highlighted the wisdom of the decision to use two separate and independent systems to launch cargo to the space station. Beginning in late 2015, Orbital introduced an Enhanced Cygnus with a 50% increase in internal volume to carry more cargo. In addition to upgrading its spacecraft and rocket, Orbital underwent some corporate restructuring over the years, first merging with Alliant Technologies in 2015 to form Orbital ATK. In 2018 Northrup Grumman acquired Orbital ATK to form Northrup Grumman Innovation Systems. Upgrades to the space station itself, such as opening up a second berthing port on the Unity module in 2015 allowed two cargo vehicles to be docked at the same time, with a third port available in 2019 for SpaceX crew and cargo vehicles to dock directly at the station without the need for astronauts to use Canadarm2 to grapple and berth them. Beginning in 2024, a fourth port will allow four cargo and crew vehicles to remain at the station simultaneously.

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NASA Ames Awards Task Order Modification for Wind Tunnel Upgrades 

NASA has awarded a task order modification to the Aerospace Testing and Facilities Operations and Maintenance (ATOM-5) contract to Jacobs Technology Inc., of Tullahoma, Tennessee, to provide the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, with an upgrade to the center’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel main drive speed control variable frequency drive. 

The ATOM-5 award is a cost-plus fixed-fee indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract that supports several experiments in the ground-based aerospace facilities at Ames, including wind tunnels, high-enthalpy arc jet facilities, and the Sensor and Thermal Protection System Advanced Research Lab. The task order award value is $41 million with a period of performance through Oct. 1, 2027.

The project will upgrade the electrical system of its wind tunnel to improve the efficiency and capability of the main drive motors. These motors are required to operate the 11-by-11-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel and 9-by-7-foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel facilities at Ames. The upgrade is expected to result in improved facility reliability, reductions in annual power and water usage, reduction of maintenance requirements, and elimination of environmental hazards allowing the facility to continue to support NASA missions and programs into the future.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

-end-

Rachel Hoover

Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif.

650-604-4789

rachel.hoover@nasa.gov

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Rachel Hoover

Hubble Finds Weird Home of Farthest Fast Radio Burst

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found a rare event in an oddball place.

It’s called a fast radio burst (FRB), a fleeting blast of energy that can – for a few milliseconds – outshine an entire galaxy. Hundreds of FRBs have been detected over the past few years. They pop off all over the sky like camera flashes at a stadium event, but the sources behind these intense bursts of radiation remain uncertain.

This new FRB is particularly weird because it erupted halfway across the universe, making it the farthest and most powerful example detected to date.

And if that’s not strange enough, it just got weirder based on the follow-up Hubble observations made after its discovery. The FRB flashed in what seems like an unlikely place: a collection of galaxies that existed when the universe was only 5 billion years old. The large majority of previous FRBs have been found in isolated galaxies.

FRB 20220610A was first detected on June 10, 2022, by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia. The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile confirmed that the FRB came from a distant place. The FRB was four times more energetic than closer FRBs.

“It required Hubble’s keen sharpness and sensitivity to pinpoint exactly where the FRB came from,” said lead author Alexa Gordon of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “Without Hubble’s imaging, it would still remain a mystery as to whether this was originating from one monolithic galaxy or from some type of interacting system. It’s these types of environments – these weird ones – that are driving us toward better understanding the mystery of FRBs.”

Hubble’s crisp images suggest this FRB originated in an environment where there may be as many as seven galaxies on a possible path to merging, which would also be very significant, researchers say.

“We are ultimately trying to answer the questions: What causes them? What are their progenitors and what are their origins? The Hubble observations provide a spectacular view of the surprising types of environments that give rise to these mysterious events,” said co-investigator Wen-fai Fong, also of Northwestern University.

Though astronomers do not have a consensus on the possible mechanism behind this extraordinary phenomenon, it’s generally thought that FRBs must involve some sort of compact object, like a black hole or neutron star. One extreme type of neutron star is called a magnetar – the most intensely magnetic type of neutron star in the universe. It has a magnetic field that is so strong that, if a magnetar were located halfway between Earth and the Moon, it would erase the magnetic strip on everyone’s credit card in the world. Much worse yet, if an astronaut traveled within a few hundred miles of the magnetar, they would effectively be dissolved, because every atom in their body would be disrupted.

Possible mechanisms involve some kind of jarring starquake, or alternatively, an explosion caused when a magnetar’s twisting magnetic field lines snap and reconnect. A similar phenomenon happens on the Sun, causing solar flares, but a magnetar’s field is a trillion times stronger than the Sun’s magnetosphere. The snapping would generate an FRB’s flash, or might make a shock wave that incinerates surrounding dust and heats gas into a plasma.

There could be several flavors of magnetars. In one case, it could be an exploding object orbiting a black hole surrounded by a disk of material. Another alternative is a pair of orbiting neutron stars whose magnetospheres periodically interact, creating a cavity where eruptions can take place. It’s estimated that magnetars are active for about 10,000 years before settling down, so they would be expected to be found where a firestorm of star birth is taking place. But this doesn’t seem to be the case for all magnetars.

In the near future, FRB experiments will increase their sensitivity, leading to an unprecedented rate in the number of FRBs detected at these distances. Hubble will play a crucial role in characterizing the environments in which these FRBs occur. Astronomers will soon learn just how special the environment of this FRB was.

“We just need to keep finding more of these FRBs, both nearby and far away, and in all these different types of environments,” said Gordon.

The results are being presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD

Science Contact:

Alexa Gordon
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

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La NASA comparte avances sobre las primeras misiones lunares Artemis con tripulación

La NASA anunció el martes cambios en las próximas misiones Artemis, que sentarán las bases para la exploración científica a largo plazo de la Luna, el aterrizaje de la primera mujer y la primera persona no blanca en la superficie lunar, y la preparación de expediciones con seres humanos a Marte en beneficio de todos. Para llevar a cabo estas misiones de forma segura, los dirigentes de la agencia han ajustado los calendarios de Artemis II y Artemis III para que los equipos técnicos puedan superar los retos asociados a los primeros desarrollos, operaciones e integración.

El objetivo de la NASA es ahora septiembre de 2025 para Artemis II, la primera misión Artemis tripulada alrededor de la Luna, y septiembre de 2026 para Artemis III, la cual se prevé que aterrice con los primeros astronautas cerca del Polo Sur lunar. Artemis IV, la primera misión a la estación espacial lunar Gateway, sigue prevista para 2028.

“Estamos regresando a la Luna como nunca antes lo habíamos hecho, y la seguridad de nuestros astronautas es la máxima prioridad de la NASA mientras nos preparamos para futuras misiones Artemis”, dijo el administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson. “Hemos aprendido mucho desde Artemis I, y el éxito de estas primeras misiones depende de nuestras asociaciones comerciales e internacionales para ampliar nuestro alcance y comprensión del lugar de la humanidad en nuestro sistema solar. Artemis representa lo que podemos lograr como nación y como coalición mundial. Cuando nos proponemos lograr lo difícil, juntos podemos conseguir lo grandioso”.

Garantizar la seguridad de la tripulación es el principal motivo de los cambios en el calendario de Artemis II. Como primera prueba de vuelo Artemis con tripulación a bordo de la nave espacial Orion, la misión pondrá a prueba sistemas críticos de control medioambiental y de soporte vital necesarios para sustentar a los astronautas. Las pruebas de la NASA para calificar los componentes para mantener a la tripulación segura y garantizar el éxito de la misión han revelado problemas que requieren tiempo adicional para ser resueltos. Los equipos técnicos están solucionando un asunto relacionado con la batería y abordando retos con un componente del circuito responsable de la ventilación del aire y el control de la temperatura.

Se espera que la investigación de la NASA sobre la pérdida inesperada de trozos de capa de carbón del escudo térmico de la nave espacial durante Artemis I concluya esta primavera boreal. Los equipos técnicos han adoptado un enfoque metódico para entender el problema, que incluye un amplio muestreo del escudo térmico, pruebas y revisión de los datos de los sensores y las imágenes.

El nuevo calendario para Artemis III se alinea con el calendario actualizado para Artemis II, garantiza que la agencia pueda incorporar las lecciones aprendidas de Artemis II en la próxima misión y reconoce los retos de desarrollo que han experimentado los socios industriales de la NASA. Dado que cada misión Artemis  tripulada aumenta la complejidad y añade pruebas de vuelo para nuevos sistemas, el calendario ajustado proporcionará a los proveedores que desarrollan nuevas capacidades (SpaceX para el sistema de aterrizaje humano y Axiom Space para los trajes espaciales de nueva generación) tiempo adicional para las pruebas y cualquier refinamiento antes de la misión.

“Estamos dejando que el hardware nos dé información para que la seguridad de la tripulación guíe nuestra toma de decisiones. Utilizaremos la prueba de vuelo de Artemis II, y cada uno de los vuelos siguientes, para reducir el riesgo de futuras misiones a la Luna”, declaró Catherine Koerner, administradora asociada de la Dirección de Misiones de Desarrollo de Sistemas de Exploración de la sede central de la NASA en Washington. “Estamos resolviendo los retos asociados con las capacidades y operaciones nuevas, y estamos más cerca que nunca de establecer una exploración sostenida del vecino más cercano de la Tierra mediante Artemis”.

Además de las actualizaciones del calendario para Artemis II y III, la NASA está reexaminando el calendario para el lanzamiento de los primeros elementos integrados de Gateway, previsto anteriormente para octubre de 2025, con el fin de proporcionar tiempo de desarrollo adicional y alinear mejor ese lanzamiento con la misión Artemis IV en 2028.

La NASA también ha comunicado que ha pedido a los dos proveedores del sistema de aterrizaje para seres humanos de Artemis (SpaceX y Blue Origin) que, como parte de sus contratos actuales, empiecen a aplicar los conocimientos adquiridos en el desarrollo de sus sistemas a futuras variaciones para poder transportar grandes cargamentos en misiones posteriores.

“Artemis es una campaña de exploración a largo plazo para llevar a cabo actividades científicas en la Luna con astronautas y preparar futuras misiones tripuladas a Marte. Eso significa que debemos hacerlo bien a medida que desarrollamos y lanzamos nuestros sistemas fundamentales para que podamos llevar a cabo estas misiones con seguridad”, dijo Amit Kshatriya, administrador adjunto de Desarrollo de Sistemas de Exploración, y gerente de la Oficina del Programa de la Luna a Marte de la NASA en la sede de la agencia. “La seguridad de la tripulación es y seguirá siendo nuestra prioridad número uno”.

Los dirigentes de la NASA hicieron hincapié en la importancia de que todos los socios cumplan los plazos para que la agencia pueda maximizar los objetivos de vuelo con el hardware disponible en cada misión. La NASA evalúa periódicamente el progreso y los plazos como parte de la planificación programática integrada para garantizar que la agencia y sus socios puedan cumplir con éxito sus objetivos de exploración de la Luna a Marte.

Mediante Artemis, la NASA explorará la Luna más que nunca, aprenderá a vivir y trabajar lejos de nuestro hogar y se preparará para la futura exploración con seres humanos del planeta rojo. El cohete Sistema de Lanzamiento Espacial de la NASA, los sistemas terrestres de exploración y la nave Orion, junto con el sistema de aterrizaje para humanos, los trajes espaciales de nueva generación, la estación espacial lunar Gateway y los futuros vehículos exploradores son la base de la NASA para la exploración del espacio profundo.

Para más información sobre Artemis (en inglés), visita:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

-fin-

Kathryn Hambleton / Rachel Kraft
Sede, Washington
202-358-1100 / 202-365-7575
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov / rachel.h.kraft@nasa.go

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Roxana Bardan

NASA’s X-59 Rollout Embodies Aeronautical Tradition

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NASA’s X-59 Rollout Embodies Aeronautical Tradition

Lee esta historia en español aquí.

NASA’s X-59 aircraft is heading out of the hangar – preparing to embark on the first phase of its mission to fly faster than the speed of sound without generating a loud sonic boom.

Leadership from NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin will officially unveil the fully completed and freshly painted X-59 to the world during a rollout ceremony Friday, Jan. 12 at 4 p.m., EST. NASA TV will broadcast the event live from Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, where the aircraft was assembled.

“This is the big reveal,” said Catherine Bahm, manager of NASA’s Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project, who is overseeing the development and build of the X-59. “The rollout is a huge milestone toward achieving the overarching goal of the Quesst mission to quiet the sonic boom.”

Quesst is NASA’s mission through which the X-59 will demonstrate its quiet supersonic capabilities. NASA will fly the aircraft over selected U.S. communities and then survey what people on the ground hear when it flies overhead. The agency will share data on these reactions to the quieter sonic “thumps” with regulators, who could then consider rules that currently ban commercial supersonic flight over land because of noise concerns.

Tradition of Rollout

So, what is an aircraft rollout? And why is it significant to NASA, industry stakeholders, and the team of aeronautical innovators who built the X-59?

Conceiving, designing, building, and testing a new airplane takes years of meticulous, highly detailed work. Every new design helps innovate a new way to fly – especially in the case of X-planes, whose very mission is to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

Unveiling the X-59 to the world represents not just the aircraft’s technical achievements, but also the future of flight, and the spirit of aeronautics research itself.

For the team, some of whom have worked on the aircraft since the first component was created, the reveal of the X-59 will be a very special moment.

CATHERINE BAHM

NASA Project Manager

In the past, aircraft and spacecraft built for and used by NASA have had rollout ceremonies ranging in scope and meaning.

In 1959, for example, the first X-15 rocket-powered aircraft rolled out to great fanfare to an audience including project leadership, the aircraft’s pilots, and then-Vice President Richard Nixon. The aircraft represented the future of winged spaceflight and hypersonic flight. It went on to carry American pilots into space onboard a winged vehicle for the first time, as well as set the record for the fastest speed a human has travelled on an airplane, which still stands to this day.

Another famous NASA rollout is that of space shuttle Enterprise in 1976 with the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series, and the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, in attendance. The Enterprise, so named for the fictional starship of the 1960s television series, proved the shuttle orbiter could descend and land like an airplane following reentry from space. The vehicle paved the way for the Space Shuttle Program to proceed with spaceflight.

Culmination of Efforts

In the case of the X-59, the rollout ceremony provides a glimpse of a potential new era of high-speed commercial flight over land –  a quiet one.

Fifty years ago, the United States prohibited commercial supersonic flight over land  because of concerns about the noise generated by sonic booms. Today, however, Quesst’s technology could reduce this noise dramatically. The mission aims to gather data from the X-59 that could help regulators adjust the ban, basing revised rules on noise levels instead of speed.

“The idea of lifting the ban on supersonic flight over land is really exciting,” Bahm said. “And that’s the future the X-59 could enable.”

The rollout also represents something closer to the ground – the achievement of the hardworking, dedicated team who took the aircraft from imagination to reality. For them, the rollout celebrates the weeks, months, and years spent developing and building the X-59.

“For the team, some of whom have worked on the aircraft since the first component was created, the reveal of the X-59 will be a very special moment.” Bahm said. “The innovative design of the X-59 leverages decades of work for NASA. We are sharing this achievement with all those who made this possible.”

With assembly complete, NASA’s mission to quiet the boom reaches a new chapter. Though there’s still a ways to go, the potential future for commercial supersonic travel is closer than it was before. The Quesst mission team will now continue ground testing before first flight later this year.

“Rollout is a major accomplishment, but it also means the next milestone is first flight, and then supersonic flights after that,” Bahm said. “Our eyes are on the mission.”

About the Author

John Gould

Aeronautics Research Misson Directorate

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