Good evening from Florida’s Space Coast, where an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft is poised to lift some 7,500 pounds of scientific gear and supplies to the International Space Station! Launch is on schedule for 11:05 p.m. EDT, the start of a 30-minute launch window. You can follow along with all the milestones in the countdown here and on NASA TV, which is available online at www.nasa.gov/nasatv.
Protected inside a payload fairing that will separate a few minutes after launch, the Cygnus stands atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Dozens of scientific studies will be conducted by the Expedition 47 and 48 crews of the station using the equipment onboard the Cygnus. We’ll detail some of the experiments for you as the night progresses with looks at research focused on fire in space, adhesive technology research and studies of how regolith – or soil – behaves in microgravity.
Here’s a look at some of the countdown milestones tonight as the launch team proceeds toward a liftoff. 10:19 p.m. – Initiate fuel fill sequence 10:31 p.m. – Begin 30 minute hold at T-4 Minutes 10:35 p.m. – Weather Briefing 10:58 p.m. – Status check to continue countdown 11:01 p.m. – Countdown resumes at T-4 Minutes
11:05 p.m. – Launch
Tonight’s countdown to the launch of Orbital ATK’s CRS-6 mission to the International Space Station is progressing smoothly toward an 11:05 p.m. EDT liftoff. Cryogenic tanking is underway now as the weather forecast remains 90 percent “go.” The Cygnus spacecraft is set to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying nearly 7,500 pounds of supplies and science investigations. Our continuous countdown and launch coverage will beg in at 10 p.m. here and on NASA TV. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Good afternoon from Florida where the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft “S.S. Rick Husband” and a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket are poised to launch tonight on a mission carrying close to 7,500 pounds of experiments and equipment to the International Space Station, along with supplies the crew living on the orbiting laboratory needs. Liftoff is scheduled for 11:05 p.m. EDT from here in Florida. There is a 30-minute launch window tonight and the weather forecast continues to call for a 90 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time.
Our continuous countdown, launch and ascent coverage will begin here on the NASA Launch Blog and on NASA TV at 10 p.m.
This is the company’s fifth scheduled cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. It is the second flight of Orbital ATK’s enhanced Cygnus featuring a larger pressurized cargo model with increased capacity and an optimized service module design including lightweight UltraFlex solar arrays.
A launch today will result in the Cygnus spacecraft arriving at the space station on Saturday, March 26. Space station crew members Tim Kopra of NASA and Tim Peake of the European Space Agency will use the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to reach out and capture Cygnus at about 6:40 a.m. NASA TV coverage of Cygnus capture will begin at 5:30 a.m. Installation operations are expected to begin at 9:25 a.m. NASA TV coverage resumes at 9:15 a.m.
If the launch does not occur on today, the next launch opportunity would be at 10:40 p.m. tomorrow. Rendezvous, grapple and berthing of Cygnus would remain on Saturday, March 26. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft stack has been rolled to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ahead of tomorrow’s liftoff. Launch time is 11:05 p.m. EDT at the start of a 30-minute window. The mission calls for the Cygnus to deliver more than 3 1/2 tons of experiments and supplies to the International Space Station where astronauts will help conduct research to improve life on Earth and prep NASA for a journey to Mars by future astronauts. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Meteorologists with the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing offered an improved forecast for Tuesday night’s launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft and more than 3 1/2 tons of experiments and supplies to the International Space Station. Launch time is 11:05 p.m. EDT, the start of a 3-minute window. For continuing updates, you can subscribe to this blog, log on to www.nasa.gov/orbitalatk, and read NASA and NASAKennedy’s Social Media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
Our continuous countdown coverage will begin here on the Launch Blog and on NASA TV tomorrow at 10 p.m. We will follow all the milestones as the launch team executes their meticulous steps leading up to liftoff, then the climb into orbit and culminating with the separation of the Cygnus and the unfurling of its twin solar arrays. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitrios Gerondidakis
To ensure research aboard the International Space Station continues uninterrupted, NASA at the Kennedy Space Center is preparing to launch a Cygnus spacecraft to provide needed supplies to the orbiting outpost.
Forecasters are calling for an 80 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time for the launch of Orbital ATK’s CRS-6 mission to carry experiments and supplies to the International Space Station. The primary concern is cumulus clouds during the 30-minute launch window that opens at 11:05 p.m. EDT. The Launch Readiness Review found no issues and gave a go for rollout of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft on Monday. We have a couple of new features on this mission and its scientific payloads. For details on the scientific research carried on this mission, go to http://go.nasa.gov/1YWYrQv. You also can read the pre-launch feature at http://go.nasa.gov/1R4e4Tc
Engineers hoisted the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft and bolted it to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as preparations continue on pace to launch the cargo mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 22, during a 30-minute launch window that begins around 11 p.m. EDT.
Working inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida, the engineers used the service structure crane to lift the Cygnus – tucked inside the protective payload fairing for flight – into place. The complete launch vehicle and fairing measure 191 feet tall. It will take about 21 minutes from launch for Cygnus to fly on its own in a precise orbit to catch the station. The Cygnus is automated to fly without crew members aboard. It will steer itself to a position within reach of the station’s 55-foot-long robotic arm. At that point, station astronauts and ground controllers will grasp the vehicle and position it in place on the Earth-facing port of the Unity module.
Then astronauts will unload more than 7,000 pounds of hardware including experiments geared toward unlocking the answers to long-duration spaceflight that crews will encounter in a future journey to Mars. Station research also focuses on solving problems of those on the Earth by using the unique orbiting laboratory for novel experiments across a wide range of disciplines.
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, former NASA astronaut Dan Tani, who now is senior director of Missions and Cargo Operations for Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, participates in a press interview. In the background is the Cygnus spacecraft scheduled to deliver hardware and supplies to the International Space Station on the upcoming Orbital ATK Commercial Resupply Services-6 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Bill White
While NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and his Russian colleague, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, have returned to Earth after a year on the International Space Station, work goes on aboard the orbiting outpost. To keep supplies coming to the current ISS crew and those who soon will join them, an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft is being prepared at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Members of the news media recently were given an opportunity to visit the spaceport’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, or PHSF, where Cygnus is being prepared.
The Orbital ATK Commercial Resupply Services-6 mission is scheduled for launch at 11:05 p.m. EDT on March 22 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Liftoff will take place at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Former astronaut Dan Tani, now senior director of Missions and Cargo Operations for Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, spoke about what he recalls about a resupply spacecraft arriving at the ISS. He was a member of the station’s Expedition 16 crew from October 2007 to February 2008.
“It’s like Christmas,” he said. “It’s exciting to watch another vehicle approach and dock. It’s like opening a big box of goodies and finding some stuff that you’ve been wanting and finding some surprises you didn’t know about.”
Orbital ATK uses the Cygnus to ferry provisions to the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.
Cygnus consists of a pressurized cargo module for crew supplies, scientific experiments and equipment, together with an associated service module providing solar power and propulsion, to deliver approximately 7,700 pounds of cargo to the station.
This mission will be the second flight of the enhanced variant of Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft. The upgraded cargo freighter features a greater payload capacity, new solar arrays and new fuel tanks. Cygnus’ pressurized cargo module has been extended and increases the spacecraft’s interior volume capacity by 25 percent, enabling more cargo to be delivered with each mission.
According to Tani, Orbital ATK’s CRS-4 mission went so well, no significant changes were made for CRS-6.
“We had a great mission on CRS-4, he said “There were a few workarounds we needed to do, but it was so minor we didn’t make any changes to this (CRS-6) vehicle.”
Tani explained that the astronauts aboard the orbiting outpost play a crucial role in commanding the spacecraft to get it into the right position so they can capture, or grapple, it with the station’s robotic arm.
“The crew on board the station get involved about two hours before they actually grapple Cygnus,” he said. “Their job is to watch the vehicle as it’s coming in and command the Cygnus to go into free-drift. This means it cannot control itself. That way, when they do grapple it, the spacecraft won’t be fighting the force of the arm.”
Plans call for the Cygnus spacecraft to remain attached to the station for about a month. Before undocking, the spacecraft will be loaded with several thousand pounds of trash prior to its destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Expedition 46 astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra of NASA commanded the International Space Station’s Candadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft at 7:26 a.m. EST while the space station was flying above Bolivia. Earlier, ground controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center had maneuvered Cygnus into place for its departure.
Once the spacecraft is a safe distance from the station, its engines will fire twice, pushing it into Earth’s atmosphere where it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean. The deorbit burn and re-entry of Cygnus will not air on NASA TV.
The Cygnus resupply craft arrived to the space station on Dec. 9, following Dec. 6 launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, for the company’s fourth NASA-contracted commercial station resupply mission.
Experiments delivered on Cygnus supported NASA and other research investigations during Expeditions 45 and 46, in areas such as biology, biotechnology, and physical and Earth science — research that impacts life on Earth. For more about the International Space Station, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/station
Good evening from Florida’s Space Coast, where an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft is poised to lift some 7,500 pounds of scientific gear and supplies to the International Space Station! Launch is on schedule for 11:05 p.m. EDT, the start of a 30-minute launch window. You can follow along with all the milestones in the countdown here and on NASA TV, which is available online at www.nasa.gov/nasatv. 
