Deftly manipulated by Expedition 64 astronaut Soichi Noguchi, Canadarm2 reaches out for the NG-15 Cygnus on Monday morning. Photo Credit: Soichi Noguchi/NASA
As Northrop Grumman Corp.’s NG-15 Cygnus spacecraft arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning, the Bethpage, N.Y.-headquartered firm has confirmed that Thales Alenia Space of Turin, Italy, will fabricate an additional two Pressurized Cargo Modules (PCMs) for a pair of forthcoming missions. Current plans are for the two additional Cygnuses—designated NG-18 and NG-19—to launch atop Antares 230+ boosters from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., no sooner than 2023.
Saturday’s launch of the NG-15 Cygnus marks the fourth of six missions baselined to Northrop Grumman Corp. under the CRS2 agreement with NASA. Video Credit: AmericaSpace
But Cygnus’ impressive history extends back more than a decade. In December 2008, Orbital Sciences Corp. finalized the first-phase CRS1 contract with NASA, totaling $1.9 billion, which required eight dedicated cargo missions to haul 44,000 pounds (20,000 kg) of payloads, equipment and supplies to the ISS through 2016.
Cygnus’ Pressurized Cargo Modules (PCMs) are built by Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. Photo Credit: Thales Alenia Space
Soichi Noguchi (right) and Mike Hopkins at the controls of Canadarm2 during Monday morning’s capture of the NG-15 Cygnus. Photo Credit: Mike Hopkins/NASA
The mission cleared a number of critical milestones which enabled Cygnus to move into “operational” cargo deliveries and in January and July of 2014 a pair of flights—designated “ORB-1” and “ORB-2”—were conducted with flawless perfection. Between them, they delivered 6,420 pounds (2,910 kg) of cargo to the ISS and removed 6,480 pounds (2,940 kg) of old and broken equipment and other no-longer-needed materials.
Interestingly, the first-ever grapple of a Cygnus with ORB-D was supported by newly-arrived Expedition 37 crewman Mike Hopkins, who was also on duty in the multi-windowed cupola more than seven years later for Monday’s successful capture of NG-15. And with Hopkins having also welcomed ORB-1 in January 2014, he becomes the only person to have participated in the capture and berthing of three discrete Cygnuses during his astronaut career.
Impressive view of the NG-15 Cygnus, with its characteristic fan-like UltraFlex solar arrays deployed, as seen through the window of Dragon Resilience. Photo Credit: Mike Hopkins/NASA
Mike Hopkins prepares to open the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) hatch to the ORD-D vehicle in September 2013. With yesterday’s capture of NG-15, he becomes the only person to have been on hand for the grapple of three Cygnuses. Photo Credit: NASA
Unlike its predecessors, OA-4, which launched in December 2015, marked the first flight of the “Enhanced” Cygnus, which benefits from a larger PCM—some 4 feet (1.2 meters) taller than earlier ones—and could deliver an 53-percent-larger haul of payloads, as well as boasting lightweight and higher-efficiency UltraFlex solar arrays.
The latter changed Cygnus’ appearance both figuratively and literally, as the UltraFlex arrays are fan-shaped, as opposed to the straight-wing design of the earlier version. And with a total payload upmass of over 7,300 pounds (3,350 kg), OA-4 marked the heaviest-ever Cygnus at that time, with 40 percent more cargo than earlier missions.
Cygnus flew 11 successful missions under the CRS1 contract between 2013-2019 and with the in-progress NG-15 flight has currently executed two-thirds of its baseline CRS2 requirement. Photo Credit: NASA
Longevity was an added bonus in the Enhanced Cygnus, for when OA-4 finally returned to Earth in February 2016 it logged over 75 days in space, of which more than 71 were spent berthed at the ISS. This was almost double the achievement of any of its predecessors.
First trialed on OA-4 in December 2015, the “extended” Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) allows a significantly highly upmass of payload compared to its predecessor, the Standard Cygnus, used between 2013-2014. Photo Credit: NASA/Astronaut Ricky Arnold, via Twitter
And looking ahead, the NG-16 hardware is on track to be launched this coming July, with an expectation that both the Northrop Grumman-built Service Module and the Thales Alenia Space-built PCM for the mission will be shipped to Wallops in May. After that, the NG-17 mission—the sixth and last CRS2-contracted Cygnus—will fly next year.
With Northrop Grumman having yesterday confirmed that Thales Alenia Space will provide PCMs for the NG-18 and NG-19 flights, this extends the CRS2 contract to at least eight missions for Cygnus alone.
The NG-15 spacecraft, identified here as “Cygnus-15”, is pictured at its Earth-facing (or “nadir”) berth on the space station’s Unity node. Image Credit: NASA
“For the past decade, we have been a valued partner on Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus program, showcasing innovative technologies that allow work and life on the International Space Station (ISS), while fostering scientific breakthroughs,” said Walter Cugno, vice president of the Exploration and Science Domain at Thales. “We are confident that this new contract will be an important milestone for the future deep-space cargo and exploration missions.”
Artist’s concept of the HALO module. Image Credit: Northrop Grumman Corp.
Including this week’s arrival of the NG-15, Cygnus missions have delivered more than 90,000 pounds (40,000 kg) of equipment, payloads and supplies to dozens of ISS expedition crews and their voluminous PCMs have afforded ample room to “take out the trash” at the end of their missions.
Research investigations delivered via Cygnus have run the gamut from life sciences to technology and crew supplies have ranged from food, water and clothes to computer spares, space suit components and spare parts for the ISS toilet.
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