Month: November 2022

Northrop Grumman CRS-18 Mission Prepares for Launch

The next resupply mission to the International Space Station from commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman is preparing for launch during a window that opens 5:50 a.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 6,  at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. 

A large white rocket with a bright white flame trailing launches off a pad, a bright white plume of smoke spreading out underneath over a large area. The rocket is just over a large, white water tower. The sky is bright blue with no clouds, with bright green grass.
File photo of the Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, with the company’s Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches at 6:01 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman’s 16th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station is carrying nearly 8,200 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew.
Photo Credit: NASA Wallops/Brian Bonsteel

Loaded with more than 8,200 pounds of research, crew supplies, and hardware, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch on the company’s Antares rocket from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0A on Wallops Island. 

This Cygnus spacecraft is named S.S. Sally Ride, in honor of the first American woman in space. 

Live coverage of the launch will air on NASA Television, the agency’s website and the NASA app beginning at 5:30 a.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 6, with a prelaunch briefing Saturday, Nov. 5, at 1 p.m. EDT. 

Live coverage of the mission countdown is scheduled to begin at approximately 1:50 a.m. EDT on the Wallops IBM Cloud Video site. Note that the time changes from Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) to Eastern Standard Time (EST) at 2 a.m., Nov. 6. 

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will be open for this launch. Gates open at 3:30 a.m. EST. Viewing locations on Chincoteague Island include Robert Reed Park on Main Street or Beach Road spanning the area between Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. The Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Atlantic beaches also provide good viewing locations. 

Members of the public can register to attend the launch virtually. NASA’s virtual guest program for this launch includes curated launch resources, timely mission updates, and a virtual guest passport stamp following a successful launch. 

Follow launch activities at the launch blog and @NASA_Wallops and learn more about space station activities by following @Space_Station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the Wallops Facebook, ISS Facebook, and ISS Instagram accounts. 

Each resupply mission to the station delivers scientific investigations in the areas of biology and biotechnology, Earth and space science, physical sciences, and technology development and demonstrations. 

Research investigations launching to the orbiting laboratory aboard this Cygnus include: 

  • a facility that attempt to advance 3D biological printing of human tissue in space 
  • a study taking advantage of microgravity to better understand catastrophic mudflows that can occur after wildfires 
  • Uganda and Zimbabwe’s first satellites developed as a part of the BIRDS program, an interdisciplinary project for non-space faring countries 
  • an investigation into how microgravity influences ovary function 
  • an experiment that studies if changes space-grown plants undergo to adapt to microgravity can be transmitted through seeds to the next generation 

Cargo resupply from U.S. companies ensures a national capability to deliver critical science research to the space station, significantly increasing NASA’s ability to conduct new investigations at the only laboratory in space. 

U.S. Cargo Rocket at Launch Pad as Crew Works Science, Exercise Gear

Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus space freighter rolls out to the launchpad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Brian Bonsteel
Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus space freighter rolls out to the launchpad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Brian Bonsteel

The Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus space freighter has rolled out to the launchpad in Virginia counting down to its launch toward the International Space Station. While the Expedition 68 crew members await the new cargo mission, they studied blood flow to the brain, inspected space exercise gear, and prepared for future spacewalks.

Northrop Grumman’s next cargo mission is due to launch to the orbiting lab from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Sunday at 5:50 a.m. EST. The company’s Cygnus resupply ship, atop its Antares rocket booster, is loaded with about 8,200 pounds of crew supplies and station hardware, including new microgravity experiments benefitting humans on and off the Earth.

NASA Flight Engineers Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada will be at the robotics controls ready to capture Cygnus with the Canadarm2 robotic arm when it arrives at 5:50 a.m. on Tuesday. Both astronauts have been preparing for the Cygnus mission reviewing and practicing robotic capture maneuvers on a computer. Mann will command the Canadarm2 to capture Cygnus, while Cassada backs her up monitoring its approach and rendezvous.

Mann started her day attaching sensors to herself and researching how the brain regulates blood flow in weightlessness. Observations may help crew members adjust quicker when returning to Earth’s gravity and provide insights into blood pressure conditions. Afterward, Mann joined Cassada and inspected the station’s COLBERT treadmill located in the Tranquility module which enables astronauts to maintain musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health in space.

Astronauts Frank Rubio of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) partnered together on Wednesday servicing spacesuits in the Quest airlock. The duo cleaned the suits’ cooling loops, performed leak checks, and examined a variety of suit components. Rubio later rearranged the Unity module to make space for the arriving Cygnus cargo, while Wakata cleaned up the XROOTS space botany facility following this week’s tomato and pea harvest.

Two cosmonauts are reviewing procedures for upcoming spacewalks before the end of the year. Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin spent a few hours today training to exit the station in their Orlan spacesuits and continue outfitting and readying the European robotic arm for future payload operations. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Anna Kikina spent her day on life support and electronics maintenance while practicing advanced Earth photography techniques.

Learn more about 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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