Sunday, January 12, 2014

ISS: the Cygnus capsule docked to its mission of supply - Le Parisien

The unmanned Cygnus American company Orbital Sciences, successfully launched Thursday its first supply the International Space Station (ISS) Mission capsule docked Sunday at the pre- orbital position.
The capsule was officially docked with the Station at 13:05 GMT, nearly two hours after receiving flight by Canadarm2, a robotic arm operated from the inside by U.S. astronaut Mike Hopkins and his Japanese colleague Koichi Wakata, according to television NASA.

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Docking was carried out over the northeast of Madagascar (Indian Ocean).
“In fact, grab something that floats freely in space right next to you and goes so fast … with such a big issue is that it is difficult,” said Astronaut Cody Coleman, which covered the ground, the event for the television NASA.
The crew used the arm to guide Cygnus so that docks the Harmony module, a pressurized conduit that provides the link between the European Columbus laboratory and the U.S. laboratory Destiny
.This first supply mission has “been perfectly conducted … from flawless launch to capture and docking to the station this morning,” welcomed the CEO of Orbital, David Thompson, in a statement .
Cygnus Book 1260 pounds of scientific equipment for experiments, among other ants to observe their behavior in microgravity, as well as material for the study of microbial resistance to antibiotics.
The occupants of the ISS – three Russians, two Americans and one Japanese – will begin on Monday to transfer the cargo to the ISS via a hatch and load Cygnus with 1.8 tonne of waste and used equipment NASA said in a statement.
Cygnus will undock from the station on February 18 and will be destroyed by falling into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
Unlike the Dragon capsule company SpaceX, Cygnus can not return to land on Earth.
Initially planned for December, the launch of Cygnus from the center of Wallops Flight, located on an island near the coast of Virginia (east), was once postponed to January 8 due to emergency replacement of a pump defective on one of the two cooling circuits Space Station ammonia.
The flight was then delayed for 24 hours on Thursday after solar flares Tuesday had created magnetic radiation may affect electronic systems of the Antares launcher.
This is the fifth flight of a private spaceship to the ISS. Orbital Sciences is one of two American companies, with SpaceX to have been chosen by the U.S. space agency to supply the orbiting outpost.
Orbital Sciences had already made a demonstration flight to the ISS in September.
NASA is betting on partnerships in the private sector to reduce the access to LEO cost.
Under a contract of $ 1.9 billion with Orbital Sciences, the firm must deliver 20 tons of cargo to the ISS during eight flights scheduled until early 2016, including three in total in 2014.
SpaceX has already made his next three missions to the station with its Dragon capsule, two cargo delivery under a contract of $ 1.6 billion with NASA. It must still carry ten cargo flights to the ISS by 2015.
SpaceX Dragon launch with its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral base in Florida (southeast).
SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada were also selected by NASA to develop each a private vessel for transporting people to the Station.
For freight, NASA also uses European vessels automatic ATV, Japanese HTV and Russian Progress, which are destroyed in the atmosphere after their mission.
These companies will market transport to the ISS with potentially increase announced Wednesday by NASA’s decision to extend for four years, until 2024, the life of the Space Station.

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