Great article. Interesting idea using Cygnus as a free flying lab for ISS.
Thinking back to when Orbital Sciences was awarded the COTS and CRS contracts, I was very excited about what Cygnus provided. It combined a proven Service Module with the ability to transport bulky payloads to the ISS.
In the mean time a small company called SpaceX has grabbed our attention with their accomplishments and plans.
But you know what? My enthusiasm for Cygnus has NOT waned! It may not be fully reusable, but as the article points out Cygnus has the ability to perform unique tasks and experiments that are helping us to learn how to stay in space.
Cygnus may be unassuming, but it can do a lot, and I hope it has a bright future - which in the case of Cygnus means lots of orbits...
Great article!
For the record, I asked NGIS yesterday if the "OA" part of OA-10E and subsequent mission designators would change, and I was told that no decision on that element had been made yet.
In the mean time a small company called SpaceX has grabbed our attention with their accomplishments and plans.
Interesting (to me) is the fact that SpaceX now builds Falcons and Dragons in Hawthorne, California generally where Jack Northrop first started his own Northrop Corporation in 1939.
- Ed Kyle
Thinking back to when Orbital Sciences was awarded the COTS and CRS contracts, I was very excited about what Cygnus provided. It combined a proven Service Module with the ability to transport bulky payloads to the ISS.
In the mean time a small company called SpaceX has grabbed our attention with their accomplishments and plans.
But you know what? My enthusiasm for Cygnus has NOT waned! It may not be fully reusable, but as the article points out Cygnus has the ability to perform unique tasks and experiments that are helping us to learn how to stay in space.
Cygnus may be unassuming, but it can do a lot, and I hope it has a bright future - which in the case of Cygnus means lots of orbits...
Great article!
Yeah. I've been very impressed with the steadily expanding capabilities the Cygnus team have been demonstrating. In addition to the Saffire experiments and post-departure deployment of cubesats, which were both mentioned in the article. They also looked into partnering with NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate to study a HIAD (Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators) concept called HEART that would potentially allow the vehicle to survive reentry and possibly return some cargo from the station. On this current mission they are hopefully going to test Cygnus' ability to boost the ISS. etc. Pretty impressive suite of new uses or expanded capabilities.
HIAD (Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators) could yet be possibility. ULA are partnering with NASA for demo missions upto 6t. ULA wants it for their SMART engine recovery system. SpaceX are also considering it for F9 US recovery, most likely in partnership with NASA.
If NASA ends up with a flight proven 6t design from these partnerships OA could use it to recover Cygnus.
HIAD (Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators) could yet be possibility. ULA are partnering with NASA for demo missions upto 6t. ULA wants it for their SMART engine recovery system. SpaceX are also considering it for F9 US recovery, most likely in partnership with NASA.
If NASA ends up with a flight proven 6t design from these partnerships OA could use it to recover Cygnus.
Yeah, I think the HEART proposal on Cygnus was supplanted by HULA (HIAD on ULA; putting a secondary payload HIAD on Centaur) which has now changed names to LOFTID. All of them are various incarnations of the HIAD Technology Demonstration Mission program trying to find a cost-leveraged way to pay for a mission that would test a 6m HIAD on reentry.
