Orbiter.ch Space News

mardi 22 novembre 2016

Weekly Recap From the Expedition Lead Scientist, week of Nov. 14, 2016

ISS - Expedition 50 Mission patch.

Nov. 22, 2016

(Highlights: Week of Nov. 14, 2016) - As the crew of the International Space Station prepared for the arrival of Expedition 50 crewmembers NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who launched on Nov. 17, research continued on a variety of investigations including looking for meteors by turning away from deep space and watching the skies below the station.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough inserted a fresh hard drive to record new images for the Meteor Composition Determination (Meteor) investigation making space-based observations of the chemical composition of meteors. The investigation captures high-resolution video and photographs of space rocks falling through Earth’s atmosphere using a software program to search for bright spots, which can later be analyzed on the ground. Measurements made by a spectrograph help determine a meteor's chemical makeup.

Image above: The moon, or supermoon, rises behind the Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan Nov. 14. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet launched on the rocket three days later for a six-month mission on the International Space Station. A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest (perigee) to Earth. Image Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

Meteors are relatively rare, and are difficult to monitor from the ground because of the interference created by Earth’s atmosphere. Investigating the elemental composition of meteors is important to our understanding of how planets developed. Continuous measurement of meteors and their interaction with Earth's atmosphere could help spot previously undetected or unnoticed meteors as they descend toward the ground. The investigation is installed in the station's Window Observational Research Facility (WORF).

Kimbrough installed a new facility on the space station that cuts back on crew involvement with autonomous payloads, giving them more time to spend on more complex investigations. The NanoRacks Black Box or Science Box is a footlocker-sized box designed to host a number of experiments with practically no monitoring from the crew. The box is installed in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) and, after connection to the appropriate cables, ground teams took over, commanding their investigations as needed and watching them through a video feed. These scientists confirmed the investigations currently installed in the Science Box were working as expected.

Image above: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough is seen inside the Cygnus cargo vehicle while it is docked to the International Space Station. Cygnus delivered approximately 5,000 pounds of science investigations, food and supplies to the orbiting laboratory. Image Credit: NASA.

Kimbrough took time to perform a unique outreach activity, sharing the book “I, Humanity” by Jeffrey Bennett as part of the Story Time From Space program -- an outreach effort combining literacy with science demonstrations recorded in orbit. Crew members read science, technology-, engineering- and mathematics- (STEM-) related children's books, and complete simple science concept experiments. Kimbrough discussed the subject of the book while on camera, and demonstrated the principles involved. Video and data collected during the demonstrations are downlinked and posted to a video library with accompanying educational materials.

The Story Time program is intended to inspire a new generation of schoolchildren to become interested in the STEM fields. The curriculum may help educators improve student understanding and interest in these subjects, preparing the next generation to pursue space-related careers.

Expedition 50 Suits Up and Launches

Hubble Spies Spiral Galaxy

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

Nov. 22, 2016

Spiral galaxy NGC 3274 is a relatively faint galaxy located over 20 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image comes courtesy of Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), whose multi-color vision allows astronomers to study a wide range of targets, from nearby star formation to galaxies in the most remote regions of the cosmos.

This image combines observations gathered in five different filters, bringing together ultraviolet, visible and infrared light to show off NGC 3274 in all its glory. NGC 3274 was discovered by Wilhelm Herschel in 1783. The galaxy PGC 213714 is also visible on the upper right of the frame, located much farther away from Earth.

For images and more information about Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
http://www.spacetelescope.org/

Image Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Calzetti/Text Credits: ESA (European Space Agency)/NASA/Rob Garner.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

lundi 21 novembre 2016

A Stellar Circle of Life

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch.

Nov. 21, 2016

Image above: A small cloud of dust and gas containing a new star being formed about 20,000 light years from Earth. Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.McCollough et al, Radio: ASIAA/SAO/SMA.

A snapshot of the stellar life cycle has been captured in a new portrait from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Smithsonian’s Submillimeter Array (SMA). A cloud that is giving birth to stars has been observed to reflect X-rays from Cygnus X-3, a source of X-rays produced by a system where a massive star is slowly being eaten by its companion black hole or neutron star. This discovery provides a new way to study how stars form.

In 2003, astronomers used Chandra’s high-resolution X-ray vision to find a mysterious source of X-ray emission located very close to Cygnus X-3. The separation of these two sources on the sky is equivalent to the width of a penny at a distance of 830 feet away. In 2013, astronomers reported that the new source is a cloud of gas and dust.

In astronomical terms, this cloud is rather small – about 0.7 light years in diameter. Astronomers realized that this cloud was acting as a mirror, reflecting some of the X-rays generated by Cygnus X-3 towards Earth.

“We nicknamed this object the ‘Little Friend’ because it is a faint source of X-rays next to a very bright source that showed similar X-ray variations,” said Michael McCollough of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the most recent study of this system.

The Chandra observations reported in 2013 suggested that the Little Friend had a mass between two and 24 times that of the Sun. This suggested that the cloud was a “Bok globule,” a small dense cloud where infant stars can be born. However, more evidence was needed.

To determine the nature of the Little Friend, astronomers used the SMA, a series of eight radio dishes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The SMA found molecules of carbon monoxide, an important clue that the Little Friend is indeed a Bok globule. Also, the SMA data reveals the presence of a jet or outflow within the Little Friend, an indication that a star has started to form inside.

Image above: Cygnus X-3 is an X-ray binary where a compact source is pulling material away from a massive companion star. Chandra's high-resolution X-ray vision revealed a cloud of gas and dust that is a separated by a very small distance from Cygnus X-3. This gas cloud, dubbed the "Little Friend," is a Bok globule, the first ever detected in X-rays and the most distant one ever discovered. Astronomers detected jets produced by the "Little Friend", showing that a star is forming inside it. Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.McCollough et al, Radio: ASIAA/SAO/SMA.

“Typically, astronomers study Bok globules by looking at the visible light they block or the radio emission they produce,” said co-author Lia Corrales of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. “With the Little Friend, we can examine this interstellar cocoon in a new way using X-rays – the first time we have ever been able to do this with a Bok globule.”

At an estimated distance of almost 20,000 light years from Earth, the Little Friend is also the most distant Bok globule yet seen.

The properties of Cygnus X-3 and its proximity to the Little Friend also give an opportunity to make a precise distance measurement – something that is often very difficult in astronomy. Since the early 1970s, astronomers have observed a regular 4.8-hour variation in the X-rays from Cygnus X-3. The Little Friend, acting as an X-ray mirror, shows the same variation, but slightly delayed because the path the reflected X-rays take is longer than a straight line from Cygnus X-3 to Earth.

By measuring the delay time in the periodic variation between Cygnus X-3 and the Little Friend, astronomers were able to calculate the distance from Earth to Cygnus X-3 of about 24,000 light years.

Chandra X-ray Observatory. Image Credits: NASA/CXC

Because Cygnus X-3 contains a massive, short-lived star, scientists think it must have originated in a region of the Galaxy where stars are still likely to be forming. These regions are only found in the Milky Way’s spiral arms. However, Cygnus X-3 is located outside any of the Milky Way’s spiral arms.

“In some ways it’s a surprise that we find Cygnus X-3 where we do,” said co-author Michael Dunham of CfA and the State University of New York at Fredonia. “We realized something rather unusual needed to happen during its early years to send it on a wild ride.”

The researchers suggest that the supernova explosion that formed either the black hole or neutron star in Cygnus X-3 kicked the binary system away from its original birthplace. Assuming that Cygnus X-3 and the Little Friend formed near each other, they estimate that Cygnus X-3 must have been thrown out at speeds between 400,000 and 2 million miles per hour.

A paper describing these results appeared in a recent issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters and is available online (https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.01923). NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra’s science and flight operations.

Read More from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2016/cygx3/

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Lee Mohon/Marshall Space Flight Center/Molly Porter/Chandra X-ray Center/Megan Watzke.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Smallest LHC experiment has cosmic outing

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

Nov. 21, 2016

Roughly once a year, the smallest Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment, LHC-forward (LHCf), is taken out of its dedicated storage on the site near the ATLAS experiment, reinstalled in the LHC tunnel, and put to use investigating high-energy cosmic rays.

Whereas ATLAS and the three other main LHC experiments – CMS, ALICE and LHCb – study all particles produced in collisions no matter in which direction they fly out, LHCf measures the debris thrown in the ‘very forward’ direction.

These forward particles carry a large amount of the collision energy, and barely change their trajectories from the direction of the initial colliding beam. This makes them ideal for understanding the development of showers of particles produced when high-energy cosmic rays strike the atmosphere.

“The idea behind the LHCf experiment is to help increase our learning about the nature of high-energy cosmic rays, by measuring and interpreting the properties of the secondary particles released when these cosmic rays collide with the Earth’s atmosphere,” explains Lorenzo Bonechi, who leads a team for the LHCf collaboration in Florence, Italy.

The experiment’s two detectors are installed 140 metres either side of the ATLAS collision point. They are not suitable to be used during normal LHC operations, and so have to wait until the machine is running with very few collisions –corresponding to a low luminosity . If the luminosity is too high, the larger number of forward, high-energy particles can heat the detector and cause permanent damage.

Image above: LHCf is the smallest of the six official LHC experiments. Each of the two detectors weighs only 40 kilograms and measures 30 cm long by 60 cm high and 10 cm wide. (Image: Lorenzo Bonechi/ CERN).

LHCf has been reinstalled near the ATLAS detector several times. This year, the experiment only installed one detector, which is taking data during this month’s heavy-ion run, where the LHC is colliding protons with lead ions. The asymmetrical nature of the collisions means one detector would be bombarded with the remnants of the lead nuclei and could be damaged.

The amount of debris which is thrown in the forward direction during collisions in the LHC and the energy carried by these particles can be compared with the predictions of hadronic interaction models – sophisticated physics models that describe collisions between protons and nuclei and the list of particles produced in these interactions.

“Over previous runs we’ve found significant discrepancies between our data and the most advanced hadronic interaction models, which are used to model how cosmic rays shower down onto the earth when they interact with our atmosphere. LHCf is trying to find evidence that could help prove which of these models provide the most reliable description. Now, scientists working in this field are making an effort to integrate our results into their models, and we might see a revolution in them in the near future,” says Bonechi.

The run with lead ions and protons began on 10 November 2016 with low intensity and low energy collisions (5.02 TeV) specifically for the ALICE detector to take measurements. But now it has ramped up to colliding the beams at 8.16 TeV, and LHCf has already collected several million particles and will continue its data taking in the coming days.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.

Related links:

LHC-forward (LHCf): http://home.cern/about/experiments/lhcf

Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC): http://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider

ALICE experiments: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/alice

ATLAS experiments: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/atlas

CMS experiments: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/cms

LHCb experiments: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/lhcb

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: http://home.cern/

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Harriet Kim Jarlett.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

ISS - BEAM Update: Expandable Habitat Reveals Important Early Performance Data

ISS - International Space Station patch / NASA - Saffire-1 Mission patch.

Nov. 21, 2016

Image above: View of Expedition 47 Crew members during Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) Ingress. Image Credit: NASA.

Just five months into its two-year demonstration mission on the International Space Station, the first human-rated expandable habitat in low-Earth orbit is already returning valuable information about expandable technology performance and operations in space. Developed through a public-private partnership between NASA and Bigelow Aerospace, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) launched to the station April 8, 2016, in the “trunk” of the Dragon capsule during the eighth SpaceX Commercial Resupply Service mission.

In late May, with careful instructions from the ground, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams conducted the manual expansion of the module through a series of seconds-long valve openings that allowed space station air to enter and expand BEAM. After BEAM was fully expanded with low pressure, air tanks inside the BEAM were opened with an automated controller to fully pressurize BEAM to match station pressure. From its packed to expanded configurations, the module nearly doubled in length and increased by 40 percent in diameter. This capability to increase a spacecraft’s useable internal volume after launch offers a potentially significant advantage for mission planners who seek to reduce cargo volume, maximize payload space and efficiently package structures inside a launch vehicle fairing.

Image above: The Bigelow and NASA Mission Control teams stand by as BEAM is expanded on the space station. Image Credit: NASA.

During and after expansion, sensors inside the BEAM recorded overall structural and thermal performance. Once it was confirmed that the module was maintaining pressure with no leaks during the week following deployment, Williams commenced the beginning of BEAM’s two-year demonstration when he entered the module for the first time on June 6, 2016. He entered again on June 7 and 8, outfitting the interior with additional sensors and air ventilation ducts and taking surface and air samples to test for microbes.

Steve Munday, BEAM Manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, notes that the module and its sensors have performed as expected for the most part. “Through the NASA sensor suites on board, our teams on the ground, and astronaut support on station, we’re gaining extremely valuable data about the performance of expandable structures and habitats in space,” he says.

Image above: View of Jeff Williams, Expedition 47 Flight Engineer during Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) Ingress. Image Credit: NASA.

The NASA sensor suites inside BEAM help analyze module performance as it orbits Earth attached to a port on the space station’s Tranquility Node. Bulkhead accelerometers measured structural dynamics during deployment, wireless thermal sensors help assess the insulation performance of the fabric shell layers and metallic bulkheads, active and passive dosimeters measure radiation penetration, and Distributed Impact Detection System (DIDS) sensors detect and locate any space debris impacts on the BEAM exterior.

But like any advanced technology demonstration, the BEAM has offered a few surprises. “That’s why we test, to learn and explore new technology,” asserts Munday.

In fact, the successful expansion on May 28 was the second attempt. During the first attempt on May 26, the BEAM’s fabric layers expanded more slowly than was predicted by deployment models on the ground, perhaps partially due to being tightly packed for more than a year awaiting launch on SpaceX CRS-8. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace teams halted the deployment to closely compare the predictive deployment models pressure limits with actual readings to ensure that continuing expansion would pose no risk to the station or crew. On May 27, astronauts released pressure from BEAM to help the stiff fabric layers relax after the initial resistance. After reconfirming that the BEAM deployment operation posed no risk to the space station or its crew, the team restarted BEAM expansion on May 28, successfully reaching the fully expanded and pressurized configuration after about seven hours.

Image above: NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins conducts tests and replaces parts inside the BEAM on Sept. 5, 2016. Image Credit: NASA.

Thermal engineers at JSC found that BEAM was warmer than predicted, particularly in the packed configuration immediately prior to deployment. Munday suggests it could be due to less contact between the folded layers, providing more heat insulation than we expected. Warmer is better than cooler for BEAM, which has no active thermal control and relies upon air exchange with the station.

“A colder-than-expected BEAM would have increased the risk of condensation, so we were pleased when Jeff first opened the hatch and found the interior to be bone dry,” says Munday. “BEAM is the first of its kind, so we’re learning as we go and this data will improve our structural and thermal models and analyses going forward.”

Animation above: BEAM expansion sped up time lapse animated gif. Animation Credit: NASA.

Space station crew members entered the BEAM twice more in September to reinforce instruments that had loosened since installation, reboot a sensor data-relay laptop that had crashed, take additional samples for return to Earth, and perform tests inside the module to help engineers on the ground better define the structural characteristics of BEAM. NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins entered the BEAM on Sept. 5 to replace the DIDS battery packs after it was determined that drained batteries were disrupting wireless communications with the sensors. Ground operators remotely reconfigured DIDS power settings to a more efficient mode, preventing further disruptions. On Sept. 29, she entered again to conduct a series of modal tests to assess how the structure responds to impacts that cause vibrations and the structure’s ability to dampen the vibrations.

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace are pleased to report that, overall, BEAM is operating as expected and continues to produce valuable data. Structural engineers at NASA JSC confirmed that BEAM deployment loads upon the space station were very small, and continue to analyze the module’s structural data for comparison with ground tests and models. Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have found no evidence of large debris impacts in the DIDS data to date—good news for any spacecraft. And radiation researchers at JSC have found that the dosage due to Galactic Cosmic Rays in BEAM is similar to other space station modules, and continue to analyze local “trapped” radiation particles, particularly from the South Atlantic Anomaly, to help determine additional shielding requirements for long-duration exploration missions.

Image above: BEAM temperature data, June 7 - August 22, 2016. Image Credit: NASA.

The space station is the world’s primary platform for testing and validating deep space capabilities. “The two-year BEAM mission on ISS provides us with an early opportunity to understand how expandable habitats perform in space,” says Munday. “We’re extraordinarily fortunate to have the the space station and its crew to help demonstrate and assess BEAM technology for use in future exploration missions.”

The BEAM demonstration is a public-private partnership managed by NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Division (AES). AES is pioneering innovative approaches and public-private partnerships to rapidly develop prototype systems, advance key capabilities, and validate operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit. Although the BEAM represents an early demonstration of deep space habitation capabilities, AES is also pursuing deep space habitation development with industry partners through contracts issued under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Broad Agency Announcement. Under NextSTEP, four companies (Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Orbital ATK) have recently completed cislunar habitation concept studies, and all four plus Sierra Nevada Corporation, are proceeding toward contract negotiations to develop full-size ground prototypes of cislunar habitats. A sixth team led by NanoRacks was selected to complete an additional study on the repurposing of upper stages of rockets into habitats.

NASA Sets Space Fire in Second Round of Fire Safety Experiments

Fire safety is a crucial component of space living. As we partner with industry and international space agencies to develop deep space habitation capabilities, we are leveraging every opportunity to validate important habitation-related systems and operations in low-Earth orbit. The second Spacecraft Fire Safety experiment, or Saffire-II, is a fire experiment with nine material swatches that will be ignited in a cargo ship as it orbits Earth. Saffire-II is the second in a series of three fire safety experiments, and builds on the data captured during Saffire-I with an expanded test portfolio of new materials.

Cygnus Spacecraft Departs ISS (archive image). Image Credit: NASA

Saffire-II launched on OA-5 in October 2016. The nine samples in the experiment kit aboard the Cygnus cargo vehicle include a cotton-fiberglass blend, Nomex, and the same acrylic glass that is used for spacecraft windows. After the spacecraft departs the station, and before its destructive reentry to Earth, mission controllers on the ground will remotely ignite the samples.

Saffire-II mission updates will be added below as data and imagery are returned from the orbiting Cygnus vehicle.

Related article:

Cygnus Spacecraft Departs ISS
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2016/11/cygnus-spacecraft-departs-iss.html

Related links:

Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM): https://www.nasa.gov/content/bigelow-expandable-activity-module

Saffire-I: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-ignites-fire-experiment-aboard-space-cargo-ship

Journey to Mars: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html

Living in Space: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/living-in-space/index.html

NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Division (AES): https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/aes/index.html

Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP): https://www.nasa.gov/nextstep

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

For more information about International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Erin Mahoney.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Faint F Ring and Prometheus

NASA - Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn & Titan patch.

Nov. 21, 2016

Surface features are visible on Saturn's moon Prometheus in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Most of Cassini's images of Prometheus are too distant to resolve individual craters, making views like this a rare treat.

Saturn's narrow F ring, which makes a diagonal line beginning at top center, appears bright and bold in some Cassini views, but not here. Since the sun is nearly behind Cassini in this image, most of the light hitting the F ring is being scattered away from the camera, making it appear dim. Light-scattering behavior like this is typical of rings comprised of small particles, such as the F ring.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 14 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 24, 2016.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 226,000 miles (364,000 kilometers) from Prometheus and at a sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 51 degrees. Image scale is 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org and ESA's website http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Image, Text, Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Tony Greicius.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Cygnus Spacecraft Departs ISS

Orbital ATK - Cygnus OA-5 Mission logo.

November 21, 2016

Cygnus Spacecraft Departs ISS (archive image). Image Credit: NASA

Expedition 50 robotic arm operators Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) commanded the International Space Station’s Candadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft at 8:22 a.m. EST while the space station was flying 251 miles over the Pacific Ocean, off the west cost of Columbia. Earlier, ground controllers detached Cygnus from the station and maneuvered it into place for its departure.

Once Cygnus is a safe distance away from the station, ground controllers at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, will activate the Saffire-II experiment.

Cygnus also will release four LEMUR CubeSats from an external deployer on Friday, Nov. 25, sending them to join a remote sensing satellite constellation that provides global ship tracking and weather monitoring.

U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Departs the Space Station Headed for a Destructive Reentry

The spacecraft will remain in orbit until Sunday, Nov. 27, when its engines will fire twice, pushing it into Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

The Cygnus resupply craft launched Oct. 17 on an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, for the company’s sixth NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission. The company’s seventh contracted resupply mission is targeted for spring 2017 on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

For more information about Orbital ATK, visit: https://www.orbitalatk.com/

For more information about International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video (NASA TV), Text, Credits: NASA/Brian Dunbar.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch