The crew aboard the Worldwide House Station proceed to unpack greater than 11,000 kilos of essential spares, meals and provides delivered Sept. 18 by a Cygnus XL industrial resupply mission. The arrival of the Cygnus XL to the house station was delayed by in the future, as a result of adjustments within the rendezvous planning ensuing from the primary spacecraft engine shutting down early on two burns on Sept. 16.
Northrop Grumman’s engineering and operations, in shut coordination with NASA, instantly started to judge the Cygnus XL engine burn and labored very intently with the company to develop a brand new burn plan. The Northrop Grumman crew quickly found a conservative safeguard within the spacecraft software program settings that triggered an early warning and secure shutdown of the engine. Groups adjusted the burn durations and resumed a brand new sequence of rendezvous burns to proceed Cygnus XL’s method towards the house station.
All subsequent burns had been executed completely, permitting for the secure supply of the spacecraft with no impression to station operations.
“NASA’s workforce stays robust and devoted to soundly working alongside our companions to make sure mission success. Industrial partnerships we pioneered in low Earth orbit are transferring farther into the photo voltaic system with NASA, together with on the Moon and Mars,” mentioned NASA Affiliate Administrator Amit Kshatriya. “I’m extremely happy with our joint mission groups who demonstrated their toughness and competence to resolve points once they arose – these values will propel America ahead in our Golden Age of innovation and exploration.”
NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 crew member Jonny Kim, at present dwelling and dealing aboard the house station, echoed that sentiment and embraced the newly devised plan to welcome Cygnus XL’s arrival.
“An enormous congratulations to the NASA and Cygnus groups for a profitable Cygnus launch, rendezvous, and seize. Adapting and overcoming unexpected challenges is one thing we do at NASA and I’m very proud to be part of this crew,” mentioned NASA astronaut Jonny Kim. Cygnus will stay on the house station till spring when it departs the orbiting laboratory at which level it’s going to eliminate a number of thousand kilos of particles via its re-entry into Earth’s environment the place it’s going to harmlessly expend.
Study extra about station actions by following the house station weblog, @space_station on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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