Archivo de la etiqueta: International Space Station

Cygnus XL Cargo Craft Captured by Station Robotic Arm

At 7:24 a.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, with assistance from NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, captured Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft using the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. 

Mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will use the Canadarm2 to position the spacecraft to its installation orientation. It then will guide Cygnus XL in for installation to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port. 

NASA will provide coverage of the spacecraft’s installation at 9 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23 mission launched at 6:11 p.m. on Sept. 14 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying more than 11,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory. 

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

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Mark A. Garcia

Cygnus Resupply Ship Approaching Station for Capture

NASA’s coverage is underway on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more for the capture of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft. At approximately 7:18 a.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will capture the spacecraft using the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Zena Cardman will assist. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading. 

On Sept. 16, the Cygnus XL spacecraft’s main engine shut down earlier than planned during two orbit-raising burns for its space station rendezvous. NASA and Northrop Grumman delayed its arrival while flight controllers assessed an alternate approach plan. The early shutdown was triggered by a conservative software safeguard. The spacecraft has been cleared for its approach to the orbiting laboratory.

The spacecraft launched at 6:11 p.m. on Sept. 14 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying more than 11,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA. The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23. 

Live coverage of Cygnus XL installation will begin at 8:25 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media. 

NASA will provide coverage of the spacecraft’s installation beginning at 8 a.m. on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, X, Facebook, and the agency’s website.

Learn more about station activities by following @NASASpaceOps and @space_station on X, as well as the International Space Station’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia

NASA, Northrop Grumman “Go” to Proceed with Cygnus XL Station Arrival

NASA and Northrop Grumman are targeting the safe arrival of the company’s Cygnus XL at approximately 7:18 a.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 18, to the International Space Station.  The Cygnus XL now will conduct a series of burns to bring the spacecraft to the space station for its robotic capture and installation.

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim is scheduled to capture Cygnus XL using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm with backup support from NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port and will remain at the space station until March 2026.

The Cygnus XL spacecraft launched at 6:11 p.m. on Sept. 14 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. On Sept. 16, Cygnus XL commanded the main engine to shutdown earlier than planned during two, non-sequential rendezvous burns (delta velocity burns 3 and 5), designed to raise the orbit of the spacecraft for rendezvous with the space station. Cygnus XL’s trajectory placed the spacecraft a safe distance behind the space station while engineers assessed the spacecraft and developed its alternate burn plan. Data shared by the spacecraft confirmed that Cygnus XL operated as intended during two planned maneuvers when an early warning system initiated a shutdown command and ended the main engine burn because of a conservative safeguard in the software settings.

NASA’s arrival, capture, and installation coverage are as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):

Thursday, Sept. 18

5:45 a.m. – Arrival coverage begins on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more.

7:18 a.m. – Capture of Cygnus XL with the space station’s robotic arm.

8:25 a.m. – Installation coverage begins on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more.

Follow the space station blog for the most up-to-date information. 

The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23, and is the first flight of the larger, more cargo-capable version of the solar-powered spacecraft. 

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Joseph Zakrzewski

NASA, Northrop Grumman Assessing Cygnus XL Engine Burn Plan

NASA and Northrop Grumman are delaying the arrival of the Cygnus XL to the International Space Station as flight controllers evaluate an alternate burn plan for the resupply spacecraft. The Cygnus XL will not arrive to the space station on Wednesday, Sept. 17, as originally planned, with a new arrival date and time under review.

Early Tuesday morning, Cygnus XL’s main engine stopped earlier than planned during two burns designed to raise the orbit of the spacecraft for rendezvous with the space station, where it will deliver 11,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA. All other Cygnus XL systems are performing normally.

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim is scheduled to capture Cygnus XL using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm with backup support from NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port and will remain at the space station until March 2026.

The spacecraft launched at 6:11 p.m. on Sept. 14 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23.

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

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Mark A. Garcia

Station Crew Awaits Cygnus Cargo Mission

Expedition 73 awaits over 11,000 pounds of new science and supplies packed inside Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo craft and orbiting Earth toward the International Space Station. NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman will be on duty in the cupola to capture Cygnus at 6:35 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. The pair spent Tuesday studying rendezvous procedures and practicing Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvers they will use when Cygnus reaches a point about 10 meters away from the orbital outpost. Kim will be in the cupola commanding Canadarm2 with Cardman backing him up and monitoring the activities.

At the beginning of Tuesday, the duo joined Flight Engineers Mike Fincke of NASA and Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and reviewed Cygnus’ mission profile and the cargo it is delivering. They will soon be unloading new science experiments to explore manufacturing semiconductor crystals, disinfecting spacecraft with ultraviolet light, producing cancer-treating pharmaceuticals, and developing cryogenic fluid tanks. The quartet also called down to mission controllers at the end of Tuesday’s shift and discussed the upcoming cargo operations.

Another cargo craft, the Progress 93 from Roscosmos, arrived at the orbital outpost on Saturday when it docked to the Zvezda service module’s aft port packed with three tons of food, fuel, and supplies. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky spent Tuesday unpacking Progress and transferring fluids to and from the new resupply ship. The station commander and flight engineer also continued configuring the spacecraft for six months of cargo transfers and docked operations.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov worked on a pair of different science experiments on Tuesday.  He first set up physics research hardware to observe complex plasmas potentially advancing spacecraft designs and industrial processes on Earth. Next, he photographed glaciers and mountains throughout South America and Africa to analyze natural and man-made conditions on Earth.

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

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Mark A. Garcia