Cygnus CRS-1 (SS C. Gordon Fullerton, Orb 1)

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Spacecraft data: Prime manufacturer  Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) Platform   Operator  NASA Mass at launch  4127 kg Cargo Mass   kg Basic shape   Dimension (m)   Equipment  2 deployable solar arrays Solar array   Stabilization   Propulsion  IHI BT-4 DC power

This Cygnus launched atop Antares on Jan. 9, 2014. Cygnus pressurized cargo module – side view – ISS astronauts will open this hatch to unload 2780 pounds of cargo. Docking mechanism hooks and latches to ISS at left. Credit: Ken Kremer

Description:

• The Orbital Sciences Antares rocket, formerly known as the Taurus 2, will launch the first Cygnus cargo freighter on a test flight to the International Space Station. Orbital Sciences is developing the Cygnus spacecraft to deliver supplies to the space station
• CYGNUS CRS ORB-1 is the second planned flight of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus unmanned resupply spacecraft, its second flight to the International Space Station and the third launch of the company's Antares launch vehicle. Cygnus is filled with 1261 kilograms (2780 lb) of supplies for the ISS, including science experiments and hardware to expand the research capability of the station, crew provisions and spare parts. This includes 12 experiments flying as part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, selected from 1,466 entrants and involving 7,200 North American students. The Cygnus spacecraft is expected to rendezvous with the International Space Station early on 12 January.
• The Gordon Fullerton's pressurized cargo module contains 1465 kg of cargo for ISS including two bags with a total mas of 152 kg. Each bag contained the equivalent of 16 3U cubesats, loaded in eight Nanoracks 2x3U cubesat deployers: a remarkable set of 28 Dove 3U Earth-observing cubesats (about 5 kg each) for Planet Labs and five 1U/2U cubesats:
  • 2U Ardusat-2, for NanoSatisfi Inc., carries an Arduino processor which will run experiments by hobbyists and students.
  • 1U SkyCube-1 carries VGA cameras, an amateur radio transponder and a deorbit drag balloon, for Southern Stars Group LLC of San Francisco.
  • 1U UAP-SAT, a test satellite from Universidad Alas Peruanas, Lima, a Peruvian aviation university.
  • 1U LituanicaSat-1, a test satellite from a Lithuanian group centered at Kauno technology university in Kaunas. It is named after an airplane used for a historic 1933 transatlantic flight.
  • 1U Litsat-1, a test satellite from the Lithuanian Space Association (Lietuvos Kosmoso Asociacija) in Vilnius.
• These cubesats shall be deployed from the Kibo module.

Mission details:

• The launch of the next Cygnus freighter was delayed to January as astronauts on the ISS prepared for spacewalks on Dec 21 and 24, 2013 to repair the failed Loop A thermal control system.
• Cygnus CRS Orb-1 was launched on January 09, 2014 at 18:07:05 UTC. Cygnus CRS Orb-1, also known as Orbital-1, is the second planned flight of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus unmanned resupply spacecraft, its second flight to the International Space Station and the third launch of the company's Antares launch vehicle. Launch of Orb-1 was scheduled for November 2013, but a series of delays pushed the date to December 20, 2013. The Antares launch vehicle rolled out from the Wallops Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) on the morning of December 17, 2013, and was later erected at Launch Pad 0A. Later that day, due to the need for a series of spacewalks to fix a faulty coolant system on the space station, NASA directed Orbital to stand down the Antares rocket. Antares was rolled back to the HIF and time-sensitive cargo removed. The launch date was rescheduled.
• This was the first launch of Orbital's Antares 120 variant, with a more powerful ATK Castor 30B second stage replacing the Castor 30 used on earlier flights.
  The Cygnus cargo ship SS C. Gordon Fullerton, with an orbit insertion mass of approximately 4750 kg, entered a 221 x 259 km x 51.6 deg orbit to begin its rendezvous sequence with ISS.
• The Gordon Fullerton arrived at 250 metres from ISS at 1001 UTC Jan 12, and moved in to the 10m capture position by 1059 UTC. It was captured by the Canadarm-2 at 1108 UTC and berthed on the Harmony module's nadir port at 1305 UTC.
  
  

  Cygnus Orb-1 arrival at ISS

  
  
  
• The first two Flock-1 satellites, 3U Dove-class Earth imaging cubesats for the San Francisco based company PlanetLabs, were deployed by the JEM RMS at about 0831 UTC on Feb 11. By Feb 15 all 16 satellites from the first Nanoracks bag had been ejected.
• The 'Gordon Fullerton' was unberthed from the Harmony module at around 1020 UTC Feb 18 and released by the robot arm at 1142 UTC. It lowered its orbit at 1324 UTC; at 1745 UTC a second burn put Cygnus on a reentry trajectory. Cygnus underwent destructive reentry over the Pacific with loss of signal at 1823 UTC Feb 19.

External links:

• Cygnus fact sheet

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Wallops Island. Credit: #401

Docking cancel Korolev. Credit: #421