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#320 by Rondaz on 04 Nov, 2019 21:48
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Welcome to @Space_Station #Cygnus – hope you enjoyed your ride on the @csa_asc #Canadarm2 and your first sunrise with us. Congratulations to the @northropgrumman @NASA @csa_asc teams on another successful resupply mission.
https://twitter.com/Astro_Jessica/status/1191474116827734016 -
#321 by FutureSpaceTourist on 04 Nov, 2019 21:58
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https://twitter.com/considercosmos/status/1191485514945368064Quote😮 Our high-speed cams show the explosive disconnects on Antares #cygnus #NG12 🤩📽️
See more remote camera views and learn about what's on the way to the humans in space. https://t.co/SoBENaRHwp
@ISS_CASIS @ISS_Research -
#322 by brickmack on 04 Nov, 2019 23:10
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Haven't seen an explanation yet of the apparent change in appearance of the NG-12 Cygnus PCM. Looks like the standard MMOD panels have been replaced in some places by radiators? One segment is just bare mylar? Anyone have a source for more information on these apparent differences between past Cygnus vehicles?
Looks like a combination of active radiators, white-painted versions of the normal panels, unpainted panels, and bare MLI. I think the only places where theres bare MLI are where the FRAM mounting points for unpressurized cargo disposal are, so those were probably necessary to mount those directly to the PCM structure. The rest are likely testing for HALO and their deep space logistics vehicle, both of which need radiators, though its possible the long-duration freeflying missions after cargo delivery could require that too -
#323 by vaporcobra on 05 Nov, 2019 21:41
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Official arrival and berthing photos. They offer some excellent views of the mysterious white panels and uncovered MLI section. I'm 99% sure that brickmack is correct here, NG happened to release a video with renders a few days ago and the panels aren't a perfect match but they definitely look similar. The MLI-only section is where the unpressurized ISS hardware will be attached for disposal.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/
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#324 by joseph.a.navin on 05 Nov, 2019 23:39
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I am a bit late to the show, but here are my photos from the NG-12 launch and press events. This was my first launch and also the first event I attended as a member of the media.
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#325 by joseph.a.navin on 05 Nov, 2019 23:43
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The weather on L-0 was clear enough we were able to view Antares up till MECO!
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#326 by joseph.a.navin on 05 Nov, 2019 23:45
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Thanks to those on NSF who were there at the launch and other activities, including those at press events, was a wonderful day for a launch.
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#327 by russianhalo117 on 08 Nov, 2019 04:28
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It is next generation conformal radiator R&D work for their LOP-G modules and other Cygnus con ops plans.Any information about the silvery MMOD shield section (I guess it's where the Cubesat deployers are located?) and the radiator-looking patches on the other side of the pressurized module?
What an unfamiliarly patchy looking Cygnus... I wonder the same.QuoteThis is the first Cygnus vehicle with the capability to accommodate unpressurized cargo on its hull for disposal at the end of its mission.
The external cargo mounting point is easily visible on the pressurized cargo module in this view.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/11/02/cygnus-ng-12-mission-status-center/
Thanks for that source! I noticed it is also mentioned in NSF's NG-12 article, although there it isn't clearly specified where that port was located on the spacecraft. More details about the external cargo mounting role: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/11/02/space-station-resupply-mission-successfully-launches-from-virginia/QuoteIn another first for Cygnus, the NG-12 mission will dispose of two decommissioned experiments mounted outside the space station, a role previously reserved for SpaceX’s Dragon and Japan’s HTV cargo vehicles. The Cygnus spacecraft will depart the space station in January with NASA’s Space Debris Sensor, an experiment that failed soon after its installation on the orbiting complex in 2018, and the European Space Agency’s SOLAR instrument, which monitored the sun’s output for more than nine years.
I wonder how those will be mounted on NG-12, although not many options exist (EVA or SPDM, and I'm guessing only the latter is really an option with the packed EVA schedule in the next few weeks).
Concerning the white patches - could they be related to internal powered cargo needing to be colder than usual (either passively or through an actual radiator)? Although it is not clear to me which payload would need that...
Flight radiators are on the SM. -
#328 by Rondaz on 08 Nov, 2019 20:16
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The Antares second stage from this week's Cygnus launch reentered late on Nov 7 after 4.4 days in space
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1192899145411055623 -
#329 by joseph.a.navin on 11 Nov, 2019 16:28
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Here is my article on the NG-12 mission for my HS newspaper. This is also the first one I have written on a mission which I was present for as a member of the media. Enjoy!
https://pfhstheroar.com/7813/news/ng-12-successfully-launches-to-resupply-the-international-space-station/# -
#330 by gemmy0I on 11 Nov, 2019 23:30
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Official arrival and berthing photos. They offer some excellent views of the mysterious white panels and uncovered MLI section. I'm 99% sure that brickmack is correct here, NG happened to release a video with renders a few days ago and the panels aren't a perfect match but they definitely look similar. The MLI-only section is where the unpressurized ISS hardware will be attached for disposal.
Thanks for sharing that video with NG's official renders of their Gateway module (apparently now called "HALO" i.e. Habitation and Logistics Outpost) and deep-space Cygnus! Been wondering for a while how they were going to evolve Cygnus to deal with the challenge of needing docking ports on both ends. It's cool that they took advantage of that design (with the new outboard OMS engines) to also allow unpressurized cargo delivery on the deep-space Cygnus.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/
(Gotta say though, the music in the video was trying a little too hard to be epic.
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I've been pleasantly surprised by how proactive NG/OATK has been at incrementally evolving their various assets (Cygnus, MEV, and even their SRBs with OmegA, although the jury's still out on whether that'll be much of a success) to stay relevant in a rapidly changing space landscape. Of all the "old space" companies right now (with the exception of Sierra Nevada, who's technically "old space" but doesn't act like it), they seem to be most aware that waiting for government funding to pay them to so much as sneeze is a recipe for getting left behind. (*cough* Boeing *cough*) I found it noteworthy that in a roundtable discussion amongst SLS contractors a year or two ago (wish I remembered where it was...) they were the only ones telling the rest "hey, we should be thinking past the lucrative development-phase gravy train and planning for serial production", something the others seemed uninterested in hearing. Meanwhile they've been quietly taking the assets they have and building them into clever new things that are far enough along to win contracts while their competitors are still in the PowerPoint phase. Blue Origin could learn a thing or two from them about "gradatim ferocitur".
Cygnus has been the best example of this. First they added external cubesat deployers to capitalize on the burgeoning smallsat market. AFAIK that's all been a private enterprise (partnering with NanoRacks and the like) - hitching a more or less free ride on already-paid-for NASA CRS missions to launch cubesats for very little marginal cost. Then they added the SlingShot deployer on the front hatch for even more cubesat deployment flexibility. Around the same time they started extending the duration of Cygnus missions - first just seeing how long they could keep one up there after leaving the ISS, then adding reaction control gyros to make the station keeping fuel last a lot longer. Now they've got two of them up there at the same time to prove out their ability to handle that in mission control. All of this has been on missions already paid for by NASA, after the primary mission was over - a lot like how SpaceX developed first-stage reuse on the cheap (they could afford to lose a lot of boosters because they'd already done their paid-for job).
When I heard that they'd been given a sole-source contract for the Gateway hab module, on the basis that they were the only contractor who NASA saw even being close to delivering on time for 2024, I realized how this gradual investment had paid off. None of their competitors were ready because they were waiting for funding before actually bending metal. Meanwhile NG already had an active production line for Cygnus and a credible plan to straightforwardly evolve it into the needed Gateway module (HALO).
I then guessed "hmm, we'll probably see Cygnus starting to look more and more like HALO between now and 2024" and sure enough, NG-12 shows up with the same radiator panels shown in the HALO renders. I wonder what we'll see on NG-13 and NG-14. My guess would be they'll replace the berthing node with an IDS-compatible docking port and try automated rendezvous and docking sometime soon. They've already done most of the hard work for automated rendezvous and docking with the MEV (Mission Extension Vehicle) project; MEV-1 was launched recently and is on its way to dock with an old GEO comsat. Docking to the ISS/Gateway is a little more complicated due to the complex rules and need for human safety, but again, the hardest part has been done. Building the IDS port itself doesn't seem too hard - SpaceX and Boeing have both already done it and we haven't heard either of them complain about it ever being a "long pole in the tent" for Commercial Crew.
IIRC, NASA set a target time frame of 2021 for their proposed commercial node module to be added to the ISS at Harmony Forward. 2021 would be crazy aggressive for that, but I can see why NASA would want it that fast, because the IDAs are going to get crowded as private crew and cargo flights pick up. NG is the only company I could see being able to deliver such a node that fast (except perhaps SpaceX, but they're not really interested in that). It would be basically a clone of their HALO module for the Gateway, except simpler, because it can rely on the ISS for things that HALO will need to do on its own (life support especially; also there's no need for xenon propellant transfer to the PPE from visiting cargo vehicles). It would make a lot of sense for them to do an ISS module first in 2021-22 as a "dry run" for HALO.
Heck, once they've got IDS ports and automated docking on Cygnus, there's all sorts of fun things they can do in the post-mission phase. With androgynous ports they could dock a couple of them together and declare it the "first private space station". Not much of a station (and it wouldn't be permanent), but it'd get them in the history books and put them squarely in the lead in the race to a commercial station to replace the ISS. If they wanted to get really fancy they could switch to the new HALO/deep-space-Cygnus service module that lets them put a docking port (with no pressurized pass-through) on the aft end in addition to the main front one, allowing two Cygni to dock together while leaving their front ports free. They could then contract SpaceX or Boeing to have one of their Commercial Crew missions swing by the "Cygnus station" for a day or two on the way home from an ISS crew rotation, getting them another world record and allowing them to run some tests. The PR value alone would be huge. -
#331 by jacqmans on 13 Nov, 2019 11:13
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The Cygnus NG-12 cargo vehicle hangs out after arriving to the International Space Station on 4 November.
The latest resupply mission includes over 4 tonnes of science experiments, crew supplies, and station hardware. It also crucially includes components essential for the series of spacewalks taking place this month.
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#332 by centaurinasa on 19 Nov, 2019 13:32
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Seems there is HD view on UStream ….
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#333 by joseph.a.navin on 25 Nov, 2019 14:00
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Couple of extra NG-12 images I found in my folder. The first one is of Pad-0A viewed from Assawoman. In the photo, the Antares was being raised to vertical around 8:45 EDT on Nov 1. In the second image is from the media tour bus driving across the causeway to Wallops Island. In the image is the whole MARS or Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport complex, with Antares horizontal at pad-0A, then LC-2, and finally pad-0B.
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#334 by joseph.a.navin on 25 Nov, 2019 14:04
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Does it look like the RD-181s are behind this cover or would it be on the other side? the bulges in the tarp look like they are engine bells but I could be completely wrong.
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#335 by joseph.a.navin on 03 Dec, 2019 18:18
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Handheld phone video of the NG-12 launch as viewed from the media/press site on Nov 2, 2019. Video is 2mins in length and covers the last seconds of the count to near MECO.
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#336 by Olaf on 08 Dec, 2019 18:03
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https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191203005289/en/Spaceflight’s-SEOPS-2-Mission-Launch-Multiple-Spacecraft-InternationalQuote
Spaceflight, the leading provider of mission management and rideshare integration services, announced that together with Hypergiant SEOPS, it will be launching three CubeSats from the International Space Station (ISS) and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft in early January.
QuoteThe payloads will travel to the ISS through a NASA Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon scheduled to launch atop a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on December 4.
QuoteSpacecraft on Spaceflight’s SEOPS-2 mission include:
Two NASA CubeSats, both selected for flight by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative to fly on the ELaNa 28 mission:
Compact Infrared Radiometer in Space instrument (CIRiS), built by Ball Aerospace, is designed to investigate and optimize the calibration of infrared images acquired from a 6U CubeSat and can benefit a variety of Earth science applications, including land and water use management. CIRiS was selected by NASA’s In Space Validation of Earth Science Technology (InVEST) program. EdgeCube, a student-built 1U CubeSat, developed via a partnership with Sonoma State University, Santa Clara University, and Morehead State University, is designed to see ecosystem change over time, as well as train and educate future STEM students.
A DARPA 6U CubeSat -
#337 by Comga on 08 Jan, 2020 20:51
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I am hearing that the NG-12 Cygnus will be released from the ISS on January 31 and deploy those cubesats on February 1.
Does anyone have anything on the time of day for that release?
Any way to monitor events as they unfold? -
#338 by Sam Ho on 08 Jan, 2020 21:52
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I am hearing that the NG-12 Cygnus will be released from the ISS on January 31 and deploy those cubesats on February 1.
Does anyone have anything on the time of day for that release?
Any way to monitor events as they unfold?
From the NASA TV schedule: (Could change, of course.)QuoteJanuary 31, Friday
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public
9:15 a.m. – Coverage of the departure of the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo craft from the International Space Station. Release scheduled at 9:35 a.m. EST (All Channels) -
#339 by Comga on 08 Jan, 2020 22:09
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I am hearing that the NG-12 Cygnus will be released from the ISS on January 31 and deploy those cubesats on February 1.
Does anyone have anything on the time of day for that release?
Any way to monitor events as they unfold?
From the NASA TV schedule: (Could change, of course.)QuoteJanuary 31, Friday
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public
9:15 a.m. – Coverage of the departure of the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo craft from the International Space Station. Release scheduled at 9:35 a.m. EST (All Channels)
Thanks but I was looking for the time of the release of the cubesats on February 1.
I have been told that it will not be televised, so the NASA TV schedule will not include it.
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