The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket
launches from Pad-0A with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, Sunday, July 13, 2014,
at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Cygnus spacecraft is filled
with over 3,000 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station,
including science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew
provisions. The Orbital-2 mission is Orbital Sciences' second contracted cargo
delivery flight to the space station for NASA.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
A multitude of NASA research investigations, crew provisions, hardware and science experiments from across the country is headed to the International Space Station aboard Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus spacecraft. The cargo craft launched aboard Orbital's Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 12:52 p.m. EDT Sunday.
The mission is the company's second cargo delivery flight to the station
through a $1.9 billion NASA Commercial Resupply Services contract. Orbital will
fly at least eight cargo missions to the space station through 2016.
The Orbital-2 mission is carrying almost 3,300 pounds of supplies to the
station, which will expand the research capability of the Expedition 40 crew
members. Among the research investigations headed to the orbital laboratory are
a flock of nanosatellites designed to take images of Earth, developed by Planet
Labs of San Francisco; and a satellite-based investigation called TechEdSat-4
built by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, which aims to
develop technology that will eventually enable small samples to be returned to
Earth from the space station.
An experiment managed by Ames called Smart Synchronized Position Hold,
Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) features a sensor and
multiple cameras to enable 3-D mapping and robotic navigation inside the space
station. In addition, a host of student experiments are on board as part of the
Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, an initiative of the National Center for
Earth and Space Science Education and NanoRacks.
Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA, with help from Alexander Gerst
of the European Space Agency, will use the station's robotic arm to take hold of
Cygnus at 6:39 a.m. Wednesday, July 16. In August, the capsule, which will be
filled with trash, will depart the station and burn up during reentry in Earth’s
atmosphere.
The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and
human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research
breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has been continuously
occupied since November 2000. In that time, it has been visited by more than 200
people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space
station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration,
including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.
For more information about the Orbital-2 mission and the International Space
Station, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario