At the conclusion of Flight Readiness Review at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, senior NASA and contractor managers voted unanimously to proceed with processing toward the targeted launch of the CYGNSS mission on an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket on Monday, Dec. 12. The team is progressing towards mating the Pegasus rocket to …
Three new crew members are in their first week aboard the International Space Station. They joined the Expedition 50 crew Saturday bringing the occupancy of the orbital lab to six humans. The two U.S. astronauts, three cosmonauts and one French astronaut are getting ready for Thanksgiving in space. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is beginning her …
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Potential Wastewater Storage Tank Assembly (WSTA) Leak: This morning an unexpected caution indicating “UPA Potential WSTA leak” annunciated following use of the Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC). The crew isolated the UPA and WHC was configured to internal [EDV] to isolate the system. An on-orbit inspection by the crew showed pretreated …
Expedition 50 robotic arm operators Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) commanded the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 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 coast of Colombia. Earlier, ground controllers …
Pam Sullivan, the GOES-R mission director, confirms that the GOES-R completed its solar array deployment for tonight and the spacecraft. The satellite is flying through space in a transfer orbit that it will eventually circularize on its own. The deployment completes the launch of the GOES-R satellite. There will be about five months of orbit …
The GOES-R satellite began deployment of the solar array that will generate electricity for the spacecraft during its mission.
Spacecraft sep! Cheers and applause erupt from the launch teams as the GOES-R spacecraft separates from the Centaur upper stage to fly freely for the first time! Next up, solar array deployment. GOES-R is in a transfer orbit of 19,000 miles by 4,400 miles. It will circularize that orbit to more than 22,000 miles above Earth to be in a position to watch the western hemisphere with the most advanced instruments of their kind.
The RL10 engine on the Centaur upper stage shut down as planned. The Centaur is positioning the GOES-R satellite for separation shortly.
The Centaur engine ignited on schedule and is pushing the GOES-R spacecraft into its proper transfer orbit. The burn will last about a minute-and-a-half.
The Centaur stage is firing its small thrusters to position itself and its GOES-R payload into the proper position to fire its main engine for the final time during this mission. Everything remains on schedule for the flight.
