Space Station robotic arm releases Cygnus after detachment from the ISS Harmony node. Credit: NASA TV
What does it look like when a cargo ship goes flying away from the International Space Station? This timelapse gives you a sense of what to expect. Here, you can see the handiwork of the (off-camera) Expedition 40 crew as they use the robotic Canadarm2 to let go of the Cygnus spacecraft.
“Great feeling to release a captured swan back into the wild last week,” wrote Alexander Gerst, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, on Twitter with the video.
Cygnus (Latin for “swan”, and a northern constellation) is a commercial spacecraft manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corp., and is one of two regular private visitors to the space station. The other one is Dragon, which is manufactured by SpaceX. Both companies have agreements with NASA to run periodic cargo flights to the station so that the astronauts can receive fresh equipment, food and personal items.
Both spacecraft are designed to be captured and released by Canadarm2, which the astronauts operate. When the Canadarm2 captures the spacecraft, it is referred to as a “berthing” (as opposed to a docking, when a spacecraft directly latches on to the station.)
Cygnus made a (planned) fiery re-entry Sunday that the astronauts captured on camera from their orbiting perch. Besides the inherent spectacular value of looking at the pictures, they could also be useful to help plan the eventual de-orbiting of the space station.
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman Tweeted this photo of Thailand at night on Aug. 18, 2014
“Bangkok is the bright city. The green lights outside the city? No idea…” This was the description accompanying the photo above, perplexingly Tweeted by Expedition 40/41 astronaut Reid Wiseman on Aug. 18, 2014. And while we’ve all seen fascinating photos of our planet shared by ISS crew members over the years this one is quite interesting, to say the least. Yes, there’s the bright illumination of Bangkok’s city lights, along with some stars, moonlit cloud cover extending northeast and the fine line of airglow over the horizon, but what are those acid-green blotches scattered throughout the darkness of the Gulf of Thailand? Bioluminescent algal blooms? Secret gamma-ray test labs? Underwater alien bases?
The answer, it turns out, actually is quite fishy.
The offshore illumination comes from fishing boats, which use enormous arrays of bright green LED lights to attract squid and plankton to the surface.
According to an an Oct. 2013 article on NASA’s Earth Observatory site by Michael Carlowicz, “…fishermen from South America and Southeastern Asia light up the ocean with powerful lamps that attract the plankton and fish species that the squid feed on. The squid follow their prey toward the surface, where they are easier for fishermen to catch with jigging lines. Squid boats can carry more than a hundred of these lamps, generating as much as 300 kilowatts of light per boat.”
Seen from orbit, the lights from squid fishing fleets rival the glow of the big cities! What might this look like from sea level? According to photos shared by one travel blogger in 2013, this.
Watch a video time-lapse from an ISS pass over the same region on Jan. 30, 2014.
A Twitter HT to Reid Wiseman and Peter Caltner for the photo and information on the cause, respectively.
Update 8/20/14: This article and image have been mentioned on NASA’s Earth Observatory site in a new post by Michael Carlowicz.
Cygnus reentry [17 Aug 2014]. In 84 days Reid, Max and I will ride home inside such an amazing fireball! Credit: NASA/ESA/Alexander Gerst
Cygnus reentry [17 Aug 2014]. In 84 days Reid, Max and I will ride home inside such an amazing fireball! Credit: NASA/ESA/Alexander Gerst
Story updated[/caption]
Farewell Cygnus!
The flight of the Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus commercial cargo carrier concluded this morning, Sunday Aug. 17, in a spectacular fireball as planned upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 9:15 a.m. (EDT). And the fireworks were captured for posterity in a series of amazing photos taken by the Expedition 40 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS). See astronaut photos above and below.
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and Russian Cosmonaut Maxim Suraev documented the breakup and disintegration of Cygnus over the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand today following precise thruster firings commanded earlier by Orbital Sciences mission control in Dulles, VA, that slowed the craft and sent it on a preplanned destructive reentry trajectory.
Cygnus reentry on 17 Aug 2014. Credit: NASA/ESA/Alexander Gerst
Gerst was truly moved by the spectacle of what he saw as a portent for his voyage home inside a Soyuz capsule barely three months from now, with crew mates Maxim Suraev and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman.
“In 84 days Reid, Max and I will ride home inside such an amazing fireball! In 84 Tagen werden Reid, Max & ich in solch einem Feuerball nach Hause fliegen!” – Gerst wrote from the station today in his social media accounts with the fireball photos.
Cygnus was loaded with no longer needed trash and fell harmlessly over an uninhabited area of the South Pacific Ocean.
Today’s spectacular reentry fireworks concluded the hugely successful flight of the Cygnus resupply ship named in honor of astronaut Janice Voss on the Orb-2 mission.
ISS Crew mate Max Suraev just caught this amazing photo of Cygnus Orb2 disintegrating on reentry. Credit: Roscosmos/ Max Suraev via ISS crew mate Reid Wiseman
The astronaut photos may be helpful to engineers planning the mechanics of the eventual deorbiting of the ISS at some point in the hopefully distant future.
Cygnus finished it’s month-long resupply mission two days ago when it was unberthed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, Aug. 15, and station astronaut Alex Gerst released the vessel from the snares of the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 6:40 a.m. EDT.
“From start to finish, we are very pleased with the results of this mission. Our team is proud to be providing essential supplies to the ISS crew so they can carry out their vital work in space,” said Mr. Frank Culbertson, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Orbital’s Advanced Programs Group, in a statement.
Goodbye, Cygnus! Credit: NASA/ESA/Alexander Gerst
Cygnus roared to orbit during a spectacular blastoff on July 13 atop an Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket on the Orb-2 mission at 12:52 p.m. (EDT) from the beachside Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
It arrived at the station after a three day chase and was captured with the 58-foot (17-meter) long Canadian robotic arm on July 16, 2014 by Station Commander Steve Swanson working at a robotics workstation in the cupola.
Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft blasts off on July 13 2014 from Launch Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility , VA, on the Orb-2 mission and loaded with over 3000 pounds of science experiments and supplies for the crew aboard the International Space Station. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
Cygnus arrival at the ISS took place on the 45th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969 on America’s first manned moon landing mission by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
The US/Italian built pressurized Cygnus cargo freighter delivered 1,657 kg (3653 lbs) of cargo to the ISS Expedition 40 crew including over 700 pounds (300 kg) of science experiments and instruments, crew supplies, food, water, computer equipment, spacewalk tools and student research experiments.
This mission dubbed Orbital-2, or Orb-2, marks the second of at least eight operational cargo resupply missions to the ISS under Orbital’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.
Cygnus Orb-2 spacecraft ‘Janice Voss’ departed ISS at 6:40 a.m. EDT, Friday, Aug. 15, 2014. Credit: NASA TV
The next resupply launch of the private Cygnus Orb-3 craft atop the Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket is currently scheduled for October 2014 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, VA.
Orbital Sciences was awarded a $1.9 Billion supply contract by NASA to deliver 20,000 kilograms (44,000 pounds) of research experiments, crew provisions, spare parts and hardware for 8 flights to the ISS through 2016 under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) initiative.
“With three fully successful cargo delivery missions now complete, it is clear our public-private partnership with NASA is proving to be a positive asset to the productivity of the ISS. We are looking forward to the next Antares launch and the Cygnus cargo delivery mission that is coming up in about two months,” said Culbertson.
Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft prior to blast off on July 13 2014 from Launch Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility , VA, on the Orb-2 mission bound for the International Space Station. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing ISS, Rosetta, OCO-2, GPM, Curiosity, Opportunity, Orion, SpaceX, Boeing, Orbital Sciences, MAVEN, MOM, Mars and more Earth & Planetary science and human spaceflight news.
A Soyuz spacecraft on the International Space Station (front) above the lights of Europe. Picture taken during Expedition 40. Credit: Reid Wiseman/Twitter
A lot of action happens on Earth at night! Just ask NASA’s Reid Wiseman, a prolific picture-tweeter who recently uploaded a series of images of night lights shining all around the world.
From his perch on the International Space Station, Wiseman sent pictures showing borders from space, that glowing punch in the desert landscape that is Dubai, and clouds rolling in over the bright lights of Los Angeles. Check out some samples below the jump.
The European Space Agency cargo ship Georges Lemaître, the last automated transfer vehicle, docked safely at the International Space Station Aug. 12, 2014. Credit: NASA/Twitter
It took two weeks to get there, but all indications is it was worth the wait. The final automated transfer vehicle of the European Space Agency successfully docked with the International Space Station today (Aug. 12) at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1:30 p.m. UTC) — right on time.
The cargo vehicle has about seven tons of stuff on board, ranging from science experiments to fresh food. The astronauts always enjoy it when fruit and other new food arrives in these shipments, given so many of their meals are freeze-dried.
Also on board was a new rendezvous system manufactured by Canadian company Neptec, which is testing out new ways of docking for future cargo vehicles. And when it’s time for Georges Lemaître to leave the station around January 2015, sensors inside will monitor its planned destruction to make future cargo vehicles better equipped to survive re-entry.
Georges Lemaître left Earth July 29 from French Guiana, as did its four predecessors. The series of ATVs started in March 2008 when Jules Verne departed to resupply the Expedition 16 crew. The other vehicles were called Johannes Kepler, Edoardo Amaldi and Albert Einstein.
The new vehicle will be opened up on Wednesday. It will be a busy week for cargo vehicles at the station, as the privately constructed Cygnus spacecraft (from Orbital Sciences) is expected to leave the station on Friday at 6:40 a.m. EDT (10:40 a.m. UTC). Both Alexander Gerst (ESA) and Reid Wiseman (NASA) will release Cygnus using Canadarm2, a robotic arm on station.
The "super moon" of August 2014 captured by Expedition 40's Oleg Artemyev on the International Space Station. Credit: OlegMKS / Twitter
With the full Moon approaching just a little bit closer than Earth to usual, a cosmonaut on the International Space Station took a few moments of his time to capture a few shots of it setting behind the Earth. Oleg Artemyev was just a shade closer to that Moon than the rest of us, and the sequence of pictures (below the jump) is stunning.
As Universe Today’s David Dickinson explained last week, the so-called “supermoon” refers to a phenomenon where the full Moon falls within 24 hours of perigee (closest approach to the Earth.) We’re in a cycle of supermoons right now, with this weekend’s the second in a three-part cycle this year.
The Moon appears about 14% bigger between its furthest and closest approaches to Earth. While the difference is subtle in the sky, it does produce higher tides on Earth (with an example being Hurricane Sandy in 2012.)
Technically the perigee happened August 10 at 6:10 p.m. UTC (2:10 p.m. EDT), but people (including Artemyev) took several pictures of the moon a bit before and after that time. One example from our Universe Today Flickr pool is at the bottom of this post. You can see more examples on Flickr.
SNC's Dream Chaser® orbital structural airframe at Lockheed Martin in Ft. Worth, Texas. Credit: Lockheed Martin
The orbital airframe structure for the first commercial Dream Chaser mini-shuttle that will launch to Earth orbit just over two years from now has been unveiled by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and program partner Lockheed Martin.
Sierra Nevada is moving forward with plans for Dream Chaser’s first launch and unmanned orbital test flight in November 2016 atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Dream Chaser commercial crew vehicle built by Sierra Nevada Corp docks at ISS
Lockheed Martin is fabricating the structural components for the Dream Chaser’s orbital spacecraft composite structure at the NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, Louisiana.
MAF has played a long and illustrious history in human space flight dating back to Apollo and also as the site where all the External Tanks for NASA’s space shuttle program were manufactured. Lockheed Martin also builds the pressure vessels for NASA’s deep space Orioncrew vehicle at MAF.
Each piece is thoroughly inspected to insure it meets specification and then shipped to Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics facility in Fort Worth, Texas for integration into the airframe and co-bonded assembly.
Following helicopter release the private Dream Chaser spaceplane starts glide to runway at Edwards Air Force Base, Ca. during first free flight landing test on Oct. 26, 2013 – in this screenshot. Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp.
Sierra Nevada chose Lockheed Martin for this significant role in building Dream Chaser airframe based on their wealth of aerospace experience and expertise.
The composite airframe structure was recently unveiled at a joint press conference by Sierra Nevada Corporation and Lockheed Martin at the Fort Worth facility.
“As a valued strategic partner on SNC’s Dream Chaser Dream Team, Lockheed Martin is under contract to manufacture Dream Chaser orbital structure airframes,” said Mark N. Sirangelo, corporate vice president of SNC’s Space Systems, in a statement.
“We competitively chose Lockheed Martin because they are a world leader in composite manufacturing, have the infrastructure, resources and quality control needed to support the needs of an orbital vehicle and have a proven track record of leading our nation’s top aviation and aerospace programs. Lockheed Martin’s diverse heritage coupled with their current work on the Orion program adds an extra element of depth and expertise to our program. SNC and Lockheed Martin continue to expand and develop a strong multi-faceted relationship.”
Dream Chaser measures about 29 feet long with a 23 foot wide wing span and is about one third the size of NASA’s space shuttle orbiters.
“We are able to tailor our best manufacturing processes, and our innovative technology from across the corporation to fit the needs of the Dream Chaser program,” said Jim Crocker, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems Company Civil Space Line of Business.
Upon completion of the airframe manufacturing at Ft Worth, it will be transported to SNC’s Louisville, Colorado, facility for final integration and assembly.
SNC announced in July that they successfully completed and passed a series of risk reduction milestone tests on key flight hardware systems under its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement with NASA that move the private reusable spacecraft closer to its critical design review (CDR) and first flight.
As a result of completing Milestones 9 and 9a, SNC has now received 92% of its total CCiCAP Phase 1 NASA award of $227.5 million.
“We are on schedule to launch our first orbital flight in November of 2016, which will mark the beginning of the restoration of U.S. crew capability to low-Earth orbit,” says Sirangelo.
The private Dream Chaser is a reusable lifting-body design spaceship that will carry a mix of cargo and up to a seven crewmembers to the ISS. It will also be able to land on commercial runways anywhere in the world, according to SNC.
Dream Chaser is among a trio of US private sector manned spaceships being developed with seed money from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program in a public/private partnership to develop a next-generation crew transportation vehicle to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station by 2017 – a capability totally lost following the space shuttle’s forced retirement in 2011.
The SpaceX Dragon and Boeing CST-100 ‘space taxis’ are also vying for funding in the next round of contracts to be awarded by NASA around September 2014, NASA officials have told me.
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Sierra Nevada, Boeing, SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, commercial space, Orion, Rosetta, Curiosity, Mars rover, MAVEN, MOM and more planetary and human spaceflight news.
Scale models of NASA’s Commercial Crew program vehicles and launchers; Boeing CST-100, Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser, SpaceX Dragon. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Photos of the International Space Station taken from the ground, using a 10-inch Newtonian telescope and monochromatic camera. Credit: Ralf Vandebergh
Here’s your morning photographic space delight: the International Space Station and the last European automated transfer vehicle (ATV), Georges Lemaître, taken using a camera and 10-inch Newtonian telescope.
The photographer, Ralf Vandebergh, captured these images as the ATV flew to the space station. The ATV launched flawlessly on July 30 and is expected to meet up with the station on Aug. 12. Check out pictures of the cargo vehicle below the jump.
The vehicle will stay docked to the space station for six months before making a planned re-entry in the atmosphere with a load of trash. The European Space Agency plans to track its fiery destruction to better design cargo vehicles in the future.
“The project is proceeding under our ‘Design for Demise’ effort to design space hardware in such a way that it is less likely to survive reentry and potentially endanger the public,”said Neil Murray, who is leading the project at the European Space Agency (ESA), in a July statement.
“Design for Demise in turn is part of the agency’s clean space initiative, seeking to render the space industry more environmentally friendly in space as well as on Earth.”
Pictures of the last European automated transfer vehicle going to the International Space Station in 2014. Pictures taken using a 10-inch Newtonian telescope and monochromatic camera. Credit: Ralf Vandebergh
The International Space Station (ISS) makes a 71º maximum elevation pass over the Little Kennebec Bay, in Roque Bluffs, Maine. The photo is a five-frame vertical panorama with the ISS's path composited.
Credit and copyright: David Murr.
How would you like to have one of your astrophotos sent up to the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station? Since arriving on the ISS back in May, astronaut Reid Wiseman has been posting beautiful images on social media of the International Space Station passing overhead, taken by people from all around the world.
There’s a dedicated team of people working behind the scenes back on Earth to make sure Wiseman and his crewmates get to see as many images as possible. This is all part of the #SpotTheStation, a project to get people to look up and see the ISS — to increase the “visibility” off the space station, so to speak — to make the general public more aware of the station and what benefits it brings to science. Of course, being able to see the space station fly overhead is always a fun experience!
The #SpotTheStation project is getting photographers more involved, too. We get several images a week posted on our Flickr site of space station passes (see the gorgeous one above by David Murr).
Take a look at some of the recent images @Astro_Reid has posted on Twitter:
How do you get your images sent up to the ISS? You can email your picture to [email protected] and include a description of your images of the ISS (location, date, times, maybe exposure information and techniques involved). Please also include your Twitter handle, Facebook or website information.
You can also just share your image through your social media outlets using #SpotTheStation hashtag.
How do you find out how to see the ISS? There are several different tools:
NASA’s Spot the Station website: Enter your Country, Region, City along with an email address or mobile phone number. Then give your preference for notifications in the evening, morning or both and that’s it. About twelve hours before the station is due to fly overhead, you’ll get a notification from NASA.
Heaven’s Above: A great website that will provide times and locations of where to look for the ISS and many more satellites that are flying over your location.
People are getting involved in this project, even if they’ve never taken a picture of the ISS previously. For example, photographer George Krieger who had never taken an image of the ISS before he heard of the #SpotTheStation project. He got right to it and on June 3 he captured two amazing ISS passes over Hollister, California. Take a look below:
The International Space Station makes two passes over Hollister California in this series of long exposure images. Credit and copyright: George Krieger.The International Space Station passes over Hollister California. Credit and copyright: George Krieger.
Here are a few more pics from our Flickr pool:
Long exposure shots of bright passes by the International Space Station over the UK on June 11, 2014. Credit and copyright: Sarah and Simon Fisher.Composite image of the June 8, 2014 ISS pass, featuring Spica, the Moon and Mars. Credit and copyright: Dave Walker.175 x 45 second exposures taken between 23:37 on June 5, 2014 and 01:53 on the 6th capturing the 23:52 and 01:28 ISS passes over London. Credit and copyright: Roger Hutchinson.
Join in and maybe you can tell all your friend that YOUR image has been sent up to the International Space Station!
Europe's last automated transfer vehicle, Georges Lemaitre, lifts off from French Guiana en route to the International Space Station July 29, 2014. Credit: ESA–S. Corvaja, 2014
The last of Europe’s five automated transfer vehicles made a flawless launch to orbit yesterday (July 30). So far, all is going well with ATV Georges Lemaître as it brings a load of cargo to the International Space Station. You can watch the launch above. The ship is not only acting as a freighter, but a testbed for technology to help with docking and re-entry.
“It is with great pride that we saw the fifth successful launch of this beautiful spacecraft,” stated Thomas Reiter, the European Space Agency’s director of human spaceflight and operations, in a press release. “But the adventure doesn’t end here. ATV knowhow and technology will fly again to space as early as 2017, powering NASA’s Orion spacecraft with the European Service Module, ushering in the next generation of space exploration.”
It will take until Aug. 12 for the ATV to make its way to the space station. On its way, the vehicle will do a flyaround to test a laser infrared imaging sensor that could help future space vehicles dock with objects that don’t have docking ports.
Then it will stick on the space station for up to six months before making a planned re-entry, full of trash. In a first for Europe, how the ship breaks up will be carefully tracked to inform the design of future space vehicles that could survive re-entry. By the way, ESA has a stunning photo gallery of the rocket’s liftoff here, but we put a couple of samples below.
The Ariane 5 rocket carrying Europe’s last automated transfer vehicle blasts off from French Guiana July 29, 2014. Credit: ESA-S. Corvaja
