As part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission, four crew members are preparing to launch for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station.NASA astronauts Commander Anne McClain and Pilot Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov will join astronauts at the orbiting laboratory no earlier than February 2025.
ELaNa 52Two CSLI CubeSats are part of the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services manifest. CySat-1 (3U) – Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa DORA (Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture) (3U) – Arizona State University Interplanetary Laboratory, Tempe, Arizona
NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative soon will send two CubeSats to the International Space Station as cargo on the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply mission.CySat-1, designed and built by students from Iowa State University, measures Earth’s soil moisture content from low Earth orbit. The measurements will be taken with a software-defined radiometer, a system that uses software to process analog radio signals. Students will create computer programs to analyze those signals to determine levels of moisture in the soil present on the Earth. As Iowa State University’s first CubeSat, CySat-1 will be a technology demonstrator for future CubeSat missions.Students at Arizona State University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California developed DORA (Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture), a new technology CubeSat.In the past, small satellites required precision pointing and only achieved low data transmissions in gathering information. The technology will demonstrate new optical communications without precision pointing and use a solid-state photon detector to gather high data rates using wide-field optical receivers. To test the detector’s performance, DORA will measure the background light from reflected sunlight, moonlight, and city lights when deployed from the space station into low Earth orbit.The two demonstrations, CySat-1 and DORA, are both 3U CubeSats, a class of small satellites. The cube-shaped spacecraft are sized in standardized units, or Us, typically up to 12U. One CubeSat unit is defined as a volume of about 10x10x10 cm in size and typically weighs less than 2 kilograms.The satellites will be released from the International Space Station using the Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer. One of the space station’s arms grabs and points the deployer in the proper direction to release the CubeSats into orbit.Launch of the Cygnus spacecraft is targeted at 11:28 a.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 3, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
US space agency Nasa will send India's Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Friday in a statement.Isro's Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) has entered into a Space Flight Agreement (SFA) with US-based Axiom Space for its upcoming Axiom-4 mission to the ISS with two Indians as prime and backup mission pilots.According to the statement, Group Captain Shukla would be the primary mission pilot while another Indian Air Force official, Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, would be the backup mission pilot.The training of both officers, also known as "Gaganyaatri", will begin in the first week of August.During the mission, the officials would undertake selected scientific research and technology demonstration experiments on board the ISS and also engage in space outreach activities.The Axiom-4 mission crew will include the US's Peggy Whitson (Commander), India's Group Captain Shukla (pilot), Poland's SÅ‚awosz Uznanski (Mission Specialist) and Hungary's Tibor Kapu (Mission Specialist).Last year, four test pilots from the Air Force were selected, and their primary training was started at Isro's Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru for the Gaganyaan mission.The Gaganyaan mission is an ambitious programme, aiming to demonstrate India's human spaceflight capability. The mission plans to launch a crew of three members into a 400 km orbit for a three-day mission, concluding with a safe return to Earth in Indian waters.
The next stage of training for a Pole for a mission to the ISSAugust 2, 2024On August 5, Polish project astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), Dr. Sławosz Uznański, begins the practical part of the training in preparation for the Polish mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is planned for 2025.In the first stage, the training will take place at Axiom Space, NASA and SpaceX centers located in the United States. In addition to the Pole, the AX-4 mission crew will include representatives of Hungary and India.AX-4 mission composition:Peggy Whitson (USA) – mission commanderSławosz Uznański (Poland/ESA) – mission specialistShubhanshu Shukla (India) – mission pilotTibor Kapu (Hungary) – mission specialistThe crew members must still receive approval from the international committee responsible for the International Space Station – the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP), which includes representatives of all five international ISS partners: NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency.The mission is scheduled to launch next year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The flight to the ISS will be carried out by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which will carry the Dragon crew capsule into orbit. As part of the mission, the astronauts will spend about 14 days on the International Space Station.AX-4 will be the next commercial crew mission of Axiom Space. The participation of the Pole in this mission is the result of an agreement signed between the Ministry of Development and Technology and ESA to prepare and conduct a Polish technological mission to the ISS. On the Polish side, the Polish Space Agency (POLSA) is also involved in preparing the mission, as the executive agency of the Ministry of Development and Technology.
Союз МС-26 (№757) – Союз-2.1а – Байконур 31/6 – 11.09.2024 19:22 ДМВ
SpaceX is targeting Sunday, August 4 for Falcon 9’s launch of Northrop Grumman’s 21st Cygnus mission (NG-21) to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 11:02 a.m. ET.
Saturday, Aug. 3Editor’s Note: The Saturday, Aug. 3, launch attempt of NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station has been postponed. The next launch opportunity is targeted for no earlier than 11:02 a.m. EDT, Sunday, Aug. 4. Please visit the official NASA Blog for the latest mission updates.
Sunday, Aug. 410:45 a.m.—Launch coverage of NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Launch scheduled for 11:02 a.m. Stream on NASA TV, the NASA TV Media Channel, and NASA+Tuesday, Aug. 61:30 a.m.—Coverage of the rendezvous and capture of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft at the International Space Station. Capture scheduled for approx. 3:10 a.m. Stream on NASA TV, the NASA TV Media Channel, and NASA+4:30 a.m.—Installation coverage of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station. Stream on NASA TV, the NASA TV Media Channel, and NASA+
William Harwood @cbs_spacenewsF9/Cygnus NG-21: LIFTOFF! At 11:02:53am EDT (1502 UTC)
• ELaNa 58• BLAST, Yale University• EagleSat-2, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University• QubeSat-2, University of California at Berkley• RHOK-SAT, Rhodes College
The Cygnus is carrying 3,857 kilograms of cargo, including 1,560 kilograms of vehicle hardware, 1,220 kilograms of science investigations and 1,021 kilograms of crew supplies. The hardware included “critical spares and new hardware items,” said Bill Spetch, NASA ISS operations integration manager, at an Aug. 2 briefing, ranging from a spare pump assembly for a urine processing system to a modification kit that will be used for the installation of the final ISS Roll Out Solar Array on the station in 2025. ...Ryan Tintner, vice president of civil space systems at Northrop Grumman, hedged on the call when asked if the new Antares will be ready to handle Cygnus missions after the Falcon 9 launch of the NG-22 mission, currently projected for the spring of 2025. “I don’t think I can give specific timelines” about the readiness of Antares, he said. “That is progressing as planned here and we’re on track.”
Overview for NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st Commercial Resupply MissionRepair Kit for NASA’s NICER Mission Heading to Space StationQuoteNASA will deliver a patch kit for NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, on the agency’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission. Astronauts will conduct a spacewalk to complete the repair.Located near the space station’s starboard solar array, NICER was damaged in May 2023. The mission team delivered the patch kit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in May 2024 so it could be prepped and packed for the upcoming resupply mission.
NASA will deliver a patch kit for NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, on the agency’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission. Astronauts will conduct a spacewalk to complete the repair.Located near the space station’s starboard solar array, NICER was damaged in May 2023. The mission team delivered the patch kit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in May 2024 so it could be prepped and packed for the upcoming resupply mission.
PDF of NASA's mission overview page.https://www.nasa.gov/general/overview-for-nasas-northrop-grumman-21st-commercial-resupply-mission/
William Harwood @cbs_spacenewsCygnus NG-21: The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship was captured by the International Space Station's robot arm at 3:11am EDT (0711 UTC), closing out a two-day rendezvous; flight controllers in Houston will now take over arm operations from astronaut Matt Dominick to pull the Cygnus in for berthing at the central Unity module's Earth-facing port
William Harwood @cbs_spacenewsCygnus NG-21: The Cygnus cargo ship was maneuvered into position at the central Unity module's Earth-facing port and locked into place at 5:33 am EDT (0933 UTC) to complete the spacecraft's capture and berthing at the International Space Station
NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 24, for the launch of the agency’s Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station.This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory. Starliner ground teams are taking their time to analyze the results of recent docked hot-fire testing, finalize flight rationale for the spacecraft’s integrated propulsion system, and confirm system reliability ahead of Starliner’s return to Earth. NASA and Boeing continue to evaluate the spacecraft’s readiness, and no decisions have been made regarding Starliner’s return.The Crew-9 launch adjustment also deconflicts the next SpaceX rotation with the upcoming Soyuz handover targeted for no earlier than mid-September. Teams are working to prepare the Crew-9 mission to be ready to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to deconflict with pad preparations for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission beginning this September at nearby Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA also will adjust the launch of SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission to no earlier than mid-October.The agency will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 7, with agency leadership to discuss ongoing operations, including NASA’s Crew-9, Crew-8, and Crew Flight Test missions.
Jeff Foust @jeff_foustQuick summary of the NASA Starliner briefing- decision on whether to fly Starliner back with crew or not coming mid-August- if not, send Crew-9 up with two astronauts; Williams and Wilmore return with them;- more testing/analysis of Starliner thrusters ongoing.