SpaceX Dragon Returns to International Space Station

The SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle has arrived at the International Space Station on its eighth flight to resupply the orbiting complex.

The Commercial Resupply Services(CRS)-8 was captured by ESA astronaut Tim Peake using the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2. Capture was confirmed to have taken place at 7:23 a.m. Eastern Time as the station flew 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean.

Dragon and Cygnus docked to the International Space Station simultaneously
for the first time. credit: NASA TV

Shortly after grapple, the Expedition 47 Flight Engineer informed teams of flight controllers in Mission Control in Houston and in SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne California of his success;

"Looks like we've captured a Dragon" 

Two hours later at 9:57 a.m. robotic operators in Mission Control in Houston slowly berthed the vehicle to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module.

Today's arrival is an historic one, as it marks the first time that two commercially-built cargo vehicles will be docked to the International Space Station simultaneously. Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo craft is currently bolted to the Unity module of the ISS having arrived on March 26.

It also marks only the second time in the history of the International Space Station programme that six visiting vehicles have been docked to the station at once.

Dragon, making its Return to Flight to the ISS following a catastrophic launch anomaly in June 2015, launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 9:43 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday April 8 from Cape Canaveral carrying 6,900 pounds/3,130 kilograms worth of science research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory in support of the Expedition 47 and 48 crews.

Just minutes after first stage separation, the rocket's first stage fell back to Earth, fired its thrusters and deployed its landing legs before successfully landing upright for the first time on a barge at sea. Friday's activities marked the second time that Elon Musk's company has accomplished such a feat - the first coming back on December 21.

Today's arrival will bring to an end the recent period of busy traffic to and from the International Space Station. CRS-8 is the fourth visiting vehicle to visit the laboratory in as many weeks, following the arrival of the Soyuz TMA-20M, Cygnus CRS OA-6 and the Progress 63P.

On April 15, robotic operators will once again take control of Canadarm2 and remove the much anticipated Bigelow Expandable Activity Module(BEAM), and berth it to the aft port of the station's Tranquility module.

Bigelow Expandable Activity Module(BEAM)

BEAM is an expandable habitat built by Bigelow Aerospace that will remain on station for a period of two years. NASA and its partners are currently investigating the practicalities of using expandable habitats in the near-Earth environment as well as on future missions to the Moon or Mars.

This will be the first time an expandable habitat will be docked to the station, so the procedure will take some time, allowing teams to closely observe the expansion process as well as the safety of the crew and the station. During this time the module will expand from its packed dimensions of 7.75 feet in diameter and 5.7 feet long, to its pressurised size of 10,5 feet in diameter and 12 feet long.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module(BEAM) being loaded into the
trunk of the SpaceX Dragon capsule at Cape Canaveral. credit: NASA

The expandable module is made up of soft fabrics instead of metal which allows the habitat to be packed to a small volume during launch and later expanded to its full size in space. Two radiation sensors, temperature and micrometeorite impacts inside BEAM will help scientists and engineers to better understand thermal, radiation and long-term leak performance of expandable habitats.

The habitat will be inflated by the crew at the end of May and it is expected that crew members will enter BEAM twice or three times per six month increment to swap out sensors that need to be returned to Earth for analysis.

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Cygnus Cargo Craft Departs International Space Station

Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo ship has departed the International Space Station after a successful 72 day mission to resupply the orbiting laboratory.

Having been unberthed from the Unity Module of the complex earlier in the day, Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Tim Kopra used the station's 57-foot robotic arm to release the unmanned Cygnus at 12:26 p.m. GMT as the two vehicles flew 400 kilometers over Bolivia. This positioned Cygnus for a fiery re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday.

Cygnus departs the International Space Station(File photo)
credit: NASA

On its fourth mission to resupply the space station, the vehicle nicknamed "S.S. Deke Slayton II" launched atop an Atlas V rocket carrying over 3,500 kilograms of cargo from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in Florida on December 6.

Among the cargo which served the Expedition 45/46 crews was a new life sciences facility and a micro-satellite deployer, as well as food and other crew provisions.

Today's departure of Deke Slayton II also marks the beginning of a busy period of traffic from visiting vehicles to and from the station. 

On March 1 the year-long mission to the ISS conducted by Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will come to an end as the pair undock their Soyuz TMA-18M from the Poisk module on the Russian segment of the International Space Station alongside Sergey Volkov.

Kelly and Kornienko have been living aboard the station since their arrival on March 28 2015. By the time they return to Earth they will have spent 340 days in space and traveled over 140 million miles.

The departure of Kelly, Kornienko and Volkov will clear the way for the arrival of the next Soyuz to bring three new crew members to the International Space Station. Cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka, Alexey Ovchinin and astronaut Jeff Williams will dock their Soyuz TMA-20M to the vacant docking port on Poisk on March 19. This will be followed just three days later by the launch of the next Cygnus vehicle on it's fifth flight to the station.

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Cygnus Completes its First Mission to ISS

The Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo craft has completed its first resupply mission to the International Space Station, burning up in the Earth's atmosphere on February 19 after spending over a month docked to the station.

Cygnus was released by Canadarm2 at 11:41 a.m. Irish Time

Expedition 38 flight engineers Koichi Wakata and Mike Hopkins, working from the Cupola, used the station's 57 foot-long Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Cygnus from the Earth facing port of the Harmony Module and manipulate it into a position for release.

Hopkins, who is making his first space flight, took control of Canadarm2, before releasing Cygnus at 11:41 a.m. Irish Time, as the station flew 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.

Now loaded with trash and other unwanted items the crew no longer needed, Wakata and Hopkins commanded Cygnus to perform a 90 second departure burn to move a safe distance away from the ISS.

Cygnus, which is named after the late Gordon C. Fullerton, performed a series of orbital maneuvers and de-orbit burns on Wednesday, before burning up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean later that evening.

With the departure of Cygnus, attention turns to the next launch of a cargo ship from US soil. The Space X Dragon capsule will make its third resupply flight to the International Space Station, with the launch of Space X-3 from Cape Canaveral on March 16.

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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.

Capturing a Dragon by the Tail on the ISS

The International Space Station has captured a dragon.

Dragon launches aboard its Falcon 9 rocket on Friday March 1 

Yes, I know. Sounds a bit strange right? But it's true. The Expedition 34 crew aboard the International Space Station have successfully grappled and docked the SpaceX Dragon capsule, carrying nearly 1300 pounds of cargo to support systems aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Dragon took off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, on only its second flight to resupply the station(excluding test flights) destined for docking this morning. Some of the cargo that will be unpacked by the astronauts include 17 different scientific experiments, that will be studied in the weightless environment aboard the station, as well as crew supplies like food and clothing.

Grapple and docking procedures were carried out using the station's robotic arm- Canadarm2, by NASA astronaut and Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford, and fellow NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn. Once grappled, Dragon was installed onto the Earth-facing port of the ISS by a team working in Mission Control in Houston. Dragon was then bolted into place through commands by Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency.

Catching a Dragon by the Tail

The station's Canadarm2 plucked  a dragon out of its 10 meter holding point, with official time of grappling occurring at 10.31am GMT. Dragon was then berthed to the space station's Harmony Module, with docking confirmed at 1:56pm GMT.

However, it is worth noting that the mission had to be delayed by one day due to a malfunction in the Dragon's solar arrays and thruster pods, shortly after launch on Friday, March 1st. This led to fears that SpaceX's Dragon mightn't be able to reach the 240 mile-high orbit of the ISS. Fortunately, these problems were eventually ironed out and teams on the ground gave the all-clear for a rendezvous with the station, followed by grapple and docking. The date for Dragon's unberthing, release and splashdown still remain planned for March 25.

Dragon docked to the station's Harmony Module 

This mission to resupply the ISS is SpaceX's second of 12 planned flights. It is hoped that if everything goes according to plan, astronauts will once again be able to launch from US soil into space, no longer having to rely on the Russians. The date for Dragon's first manned flight is expected to launch sometime in 2015.

In the mean time, while these private companies are flying back and forth from the ISS, NASA is now able to focus on going beyond low-earth orbit, and flying humans farther into space than ever before. The agency is currently developing systems, designs and hardware for its Space Launch System(SLS), and in particular, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, scheduled to make its first test flight in 2014.