The NG-20 mission is being readied to fly the Cygnus spacecraft S.S. Patricia Hilliard Robertson to the Worldwide House Station. Nonetheless, as a primary, it’s flying atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 as an alternative of an Antares rocket. This would be the first of three Cygnus missions to fly aboard Falcon 9 for Northrop Grumman to meet its cargo supply contract whereas the brand new Antares 330 is beneath improvement.
NG-20 is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 12:07 PM EST (17:07 UTC) from SLC-40 on the Cape Canaveral House Power Station in Florida. B1077-10 will fly a trajectory inclined to 51.6 levels to the equator in order that the Cygnus spacecraft will probably be in the identical orbital airplane because the Station. After stage separation, the booster is to conduct a return to launch web site (RTLS) touchdown and contact down at Touchdown Zone 1.
The RTLS touchdown is to be the third of this month whereas some SpaceX marine property have been in Charleston, South Carolina for upkeep. This contains the drone ship Simply Learn the Directions, that means SpaceX’s East Coast operations are down to at least one drone ship in the intervening time. Due to this, extra RTLS landings could also be carried out on some Starlink flights over the approaching months to alleviate stress on SpaceX’s marine operations and to maintain up the excessive launch cadence.
The climate forecast for Tuesday is 95 p.c favorable, as per the forty fifth Climate Squadron of the US House Power. The one major concern is the cumulus cloud rule. The backup days are nearly nearly as good. Wednesday’s forecast is 85 p.c favorable with the one concern being liftoff winds, and Thursday’s is 90 p.c favorable with the identical liftoff wind concern.
L-1 climate forecast for the NG-20 launch. (Credit score: USSF)
B1077 began its profession on Oct. 5, 2022, when it launched the Crew-5 mission to the ISS. This booster has since flown numerous missions, together with GPS III-6, Inmarsat I-6 F2, Starlink 5-10, CRS-28, Galaxy 37, and Starlinks 6-13, 6-25, and 6-33. Each mission this booster has carried out has been from both Pad 39A or SLC-40 in Florida, and all missions up till now have landed on a drone ship. This flight could be B1077’s first RTLS touchdown.
After the Cygnus spacecraft is inserted into orbit, it’ll take round two days to get to the ISS if all goes as deliberate. As early as 4:15 AM EST (09:15 UTC) on Thursday, Feb. 1, the S.S. Patricia Hilliard Robertson is to be grabbed by the Station’s Canadarm2. Utilizing the robotic arm, astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli will berth Cygnus to the nadir (Earth-facing) port on the Unity module.
A surgical robotic experiment is seen throughout floor testing. (Credit score: Digital Incision Company)
NG-20 will arrive on the Station loaded with round 3,750 kilograms of cargo. The cargo onboard Cygnus contains the primary surgical robotic to be flown to ISS in addition to a steel 3D printer that may take a look at printing small steel components. As well as, a 3D cartilage cell tradition, the MSTIC autonomous semiconductor manufacturing platform, and three reentry capsules that may take a look at out totally different warmth defend supplies are additionally aboard Cygnus, together with provides for the Station crew.
Along with the experiments, an iROSA photo voltaic array improve equipment will probably be despatched to the Station aboard NG-20. That is the seventh improve equipment and the third of 4 modification kits wanted to permit for the set up of the ultimate set of those upgraded arrays. Substitute items for station tools, such because the hydrogen dome meeting, ARED train machine, ion trade mattress, catalytic reactor, urine processing meeting, and others are additionally aboard Cygnus.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus area freighter is pictured moments away from being captured with the Canadarm2 robotic arm throughout a earlier mission. (Credit score: NASA)
S.S. Patricia Hilliard Robertson is scheduled to stay berthed to the ISS till Might and will be known as upon to carry out orbital re-boost maneuvers throughout its keep. When the time does come for the unberthing, will probably be loaded with trash from the Station earlier than the unberthing.
After departure, Cygnus will probably be commanded to make a harmful reentry over the South Pacific after releasing the College of Kentucky’s KREPE-2 reentry experiment with three capsules geared up with totally different NASA-provided warmth defend supplies.
The Cygnus is called after a member of the 1998 astronaut class who tragically handed away earlier than she might fly into area. Dr. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson was an achieved pilot with over 1,500 hours of flight expertise, and was a medical physician with levels in biology and drugs from Indiana College of Pennsylvania and the Medical Faculty of Pennsylvania, respectively.
Robertson was scheduled to fly to the Worldwide House Station in 2002 and had served because the Crew Help Astronaut for the Expedition 2 crew. She was additionally the workplace consultant for the Crew Healthcare System. Nonetheless, she died of her accidents two days after a non-public airplane crash on Might 22, 2001, in Manvel, Texas.
Astronaut Patricia Hilliard Robertson’s identify is on the subsequent cargo mission to ISS. (Credit score: NASA)
The naming of the NG-20 Cygnus spacecraft is per Northrop Grumman’s – inherited from Orbital Sciences who initially developed the Cygnus – custom of naming these craft for deceased astronauts or different essential figures in area exploration. Previous Cygnus spacecraft had been named after STS-107 crewmembers Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, and Kalpana Chawla, in addition to astronauts Alan Bean, Deke Slayton, Gene Cernan, Roger Chaffee, and others.
For this mission, the Falcon 9 has seen some modifications to launch the Cygnus spacecraft. There’s a 1.5 by 1.2 meter (5 by 4 foot) door within the fairing that may be opened to permit for late loading of cargo, which has been a key characteristic of Cygnus operations with the Antares rocket household. As soon as the fairing door is opened, a platform is erected that enables entry to the Cygnus craft’s hatch whereas the rocket is horizontal.
Whereas the Falcon 9 has been pressed into service for Cygnus launches in the interim, the Antares 330, with a brand new first stage developed along with Firefly Aerospace, is at present deliberate to fly beginning no sooner than June 2025. This may restore Northrop Grumman’s capability to fly Cygnus by itself rockets, and also will give the corporate a extra succesful launcher to compete for different contracts moreover ISS business cargo.
Render of the Antares 330 car. The primary stage is for use on the long run MLV rocket as nicely. (Credit score: Mack Crawford for NSF)
This isn’t the primary time the Cygnus craft has needed to be launched on autos apart from Antares. Cygnus was designed to be launch-vehicle agnostic, and this functionality was first used after the failure of the Orb-3 mission on Oct. 28, 2014. Three launches within the 2015-2017 timeframe — OA-4 S.S. Deke Slayton II, OA-6 S.S. Rick Husband, and OA-7 S.S. John Glenn — was flown aboard ULA’s Atlas V 401 whereas the Antares was modified to make use of a special engine.
In addition to NG-20, the NG-21 and NG-22 missions are additionally scheduled to fly on Falcon 9, with NG-23 turning into the primary Cygnus mission aboard the Antares 330. Agency launch dates for NG-21 and NG-22 usually are not but set. Within the meantime, NG-20 at present is deliberate to be the tenth Falcon 9 launch of 2024, as SpaceX continues to attempt for as many as 148 launches this calendar yr.
(Cygnus S.S. Patricia Hilliard Robertson earlier than the Falcon 9’s fairing is closed up. Credit score: Northrop Grumman)
