Orbital Sciences Cygnus Cargo Craft Departs Space Station

The Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo craft named "G. David Low" has departed the International Space Station after spending nearly a month docked to the orbiting laboratory.

Cygnus, which is making its maiden voyage to the station, arrived at the ISS on September 29 carrying 1,300 pounds of cargo for the crew on board. It was docked to the station's Harmony Module by ESA Astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg. Since then, the Expedition 37 crew living on station have been busy unloading cargo, and filling it instead with waste materials no longer needed on the ISS.

Cygnus Docked to the Harmony Module of the
International Space Station
credit: NASA

The Cygnus vehicle was unberthed from Harmony before it was released by the station's Canadarm2 at 12:31 p.m.

Cygnus will spend a short time in low-Earth Orbit before before it is de-orbited for a fiery demise over the Pacific Ocean.

The departure of Cygnus marks the beginning of a period of heavy traffic for the International Space Station. On October 28, just six days after today's events, the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle "Albert Einstein" will undock from the station's Zvezda Service Module, after spending more than four months at the orbiting complex.

Expedition 37 crew member Sergey Ryazanskiy
working in the Poisk Mini Research Module
credit: NASA

This will clear the way for the Soyuz TMA-09M crew; Commander Fyodor Yurchikin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano; to relocate their spacecraft from the station's Rassvet Module to the vacant docking port on Zvezda. This will allow the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft to dock with Rassvet, just six hours after launch on November 7 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, bringing Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, JAXA Astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA Astronaut Rick Mastracchio to the ISS.

As a result, there will be nine astronauts and cosmonauts aboard station for around four days, before Yurchikin, Nyberg and Parmitano will leave the International Space Station, their home for the past 5 months.

Before they leave, Expedition 37 commader Yurchikin will hand over command of the International Space Station to fellow Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov.

The trio will depart on November 11, marking the beginning of the 38th Expedition to the International Space Station.

Soyuz TMA-10M Arrives at the International Space Station

The Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station.

The Soyuz spacecraft, carrying cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazanskiy and NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, successfully docked to the space station's Poisk Module at 3:45 a.m. IST.

This comes after the trio launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan just six hours earlier at 9:58 p.m. After completing just four orbits of the Earth, the Soyuz performed a series of rendezvous maneuvers and orbital burns to set up for a docking to the station this morning.

This is only the third time a Soyuz has used this six hour launch to docking, instead of the traditional two day journey.

It wasn't long before the hatches between the Soyuz and the orbiting laboratory were opened at 5:34 a.m. The newly launched trio were welcomed aboard the ISS by station commander Fyodor Yurchikin, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, who themselves have been living aboard station since May.

The station has now been restored to its full six person capacity, with the entire Expedition 37 crew now aboard the orbiting complex. The six astronauts and cosmonauts will continue the science which is currently being investigated 250 miles above our heads in Low-Earth Orbit.

The arrival of the Soyuz TMA-10M comes less than a week ahead of the arrival of the Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft, which is making its maiden voyage to the International Space Station, and is scheduled to dock this weekend.

Expedition 37 will come to an end in November, when it will be time for Yurchikin, Parmitano and Nyberg to return to Earth. But for now, it's full steam ahead for spaceship ISS, orbiting the planet at over 17,500mph.

Japanese Cargo Ship HTV-4 Docks to ISS

Japan's HTV-4, Konoutori-4 cargo ship has successfully berthed to the International Space Station.

Chris Cassidy and Karen Nyberg smile
for the camera in the Cupola
as HTV-4 floats below the ISS.
credit: NASA

The Japanese HTV-4 (Nicknamed Konoutori-4), loaded with 3.6 tonnes of cargo and supplies for the astronauts aboard the orbiting complex, launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on August 3rd. For the past five and a half days, the vehicle has been performing a series of orbital maneuvers and burns in preparation for today's berthing to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony Node, which occurred at 3:38 p.m. UTC, while the International Space Station was flying high above the Southern Pacific Ocean.

HTV-4 entered its Approach Initiation phase shortly after 8 a.m. UTC, as the cargo ship edged its way closer to the International Space Station, travelling at a speed of 1 inch/second.

Konoutori-4 was then ordered to hold at a distance of 10m below the station, as both the HTV-4 and ISS were placed in free-drift- with all thrusters turned off. HTV-4 was then flawlessly grappled and captured by the the Space Station's robotic arm Canadarm2, which was controlled by NASA Astronaut and Expedition 36 Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg. Nyberg was assisted by her fellow flight engineers; NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy, and ESA Astronaut Luca Parmitano. Capture was confirmed at 11:26 a.m. UTC, while the ISS flew 260 miles over the southern coast of South Africa.

HTV-4 docked to the International Space Station
credit: NASA

A short while later, Robotics Officer John Bellingham, working from Mission Control in Houston took control of Canadarm2, and slowly maneuvered HTV-4 into a mating position, before the cargo vehicle was finally bolted and berthed to the Nadir(Earth facing) port of the Harmony Module.

Cassidy, Nyberg and Parmitano will now focus on finishing up this week's set of scientific experiments, before turning their attention to preparing the vestibule between the HTV and the Harmony Module. Hatches between the two spacecraft are scheduled toopen at 11:30 a.m. UTC on Saturday, August 10th.

HTV-4 is expected to remain docked to the station for a little over a month, before leaving the complex, filled with trash and other items which will no longer be needed by the astronauts and cosmonauts living aboard the ISS, departing on September 5th.

ATV-4 Albert Einstein Docks to ISS

The European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle "Albert Einstein" has docked to the International Space Station ten days after launching from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

The ATV docked to the station's Zvezda Service Module at 2:07 p.m. GMT while the ISS was flying 258 miles high over The Pacific Ocean. Albert Einstein is the heaviest Automated Transfer Vehicle that has ever visited the orbiting laboratory, and is loaded with 6.6 tonnes of cargo for the astronauts and operating systems aboard the orbiting complex.

ATV-4 Albert Einstein Approaches the ISS
credit: NASASpaceflight

After launch on June 5, ATV performed two rendezvous burns to refine its path to the ISS.

As ATV-4 made its way closer to the ISS, a further series of burns were performed to align the ATV with the docking port located on the Service Module. Astronauts aboard the ISS watched closely as Albert Einstein neared its way towards station, and were on hand to oversee
proceedings as the automated docking occurred.

Over the course of its time docked to Zvezda, ATV will deliver fuel, water and air to ensure the continued operation of the station. Its thruster's will also maintain the station's orbit in order to counteract the orbital decay imposed by the ATV during its time docked to the International Space Station.

Albert Einstein is expected to remain docked to the station for around six months, after which it will go through a destructive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere filled station waste and other used cargo no longer needed.

To see what it is like inside the ATV, watch this video as Expedition 26/27 Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli takes you on a tour of the ATV-2 Johannes Kepler back in 2011.

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