OA-6, previously known as Orbital-6, is the sixth flight of the

Orbital ATK Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cargo spacecraft are robotic spacecraft that are designed to carry cargo, possibly to support space stations' operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. This is different from a space probe, whose missions are to conduct sci ...

Cygnus and its fifth flight to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

under the

Commercial Resupply Services Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarde ...

(CRS) contract with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

. The mission launched on 23 March 2016 at 03:05:52 UTC. The Cygnus spacecraft for this mission is named the S.S. ''Rick Husband'' in honor of astronaut

Rick Husband Richard Douglas Husband (July 12, 1957 – February 1, 2003) was an American astronaut and fighter pilot. He traveled into space twice: as Pilot of STS-96 and Commander of STS-107. He and the rest of the crew of STS-107 were killed when ''C ...

History

The first COTS demonstration mission with a Cygnus concluded successfully in September 2013 and Orbital commenced operational ISS cargo missions under the Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) program with two missions in 2014. However, the third operational mission,

Cygnus Orb-3 Orbital-3, also known as Orb-3, was an attempted flight of Cygnus, an automated cargo spacecraft developed by United States-based company Orbital Sciences, on 28 October 2014. The mission was intended to launch at 22:22:38 UTC that evening. ...

, was unsuccessful due to catastrophic failure of its Antares 130 launch vehicle. Orbital discontinued the Antares 100 series in favor of the planned Antares 200, upgraded with newly built RD-181 first stage engines to provide greater payload performance and increased reliability. While the Antares 200 was under development in 2015–2016, the company contracted with

United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, ...

(ULA) for the

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...

launch of Cygnus OA-4, which occurred on 6 December 2015, to be followed by the Atlas V launch of Cygnus OA-6 on 23 March 2016. Future

launches of CRS OA-5 in August 2016 and CRS OA-7 in November 2016 would be on the new Antares 230. Together with CRS OA-6, these missions enabled Orbital ATK to cover their initial CRS contracted payload obligation. Production and integration of Cygnus spacecraft was performed in Dulles, Virginia. The Cygnus service module was mated with the pressurized cargo module at the launch site, and mission operations were conducted from control centers in

Dulles, Virginia Dulles () is an unincorporated area in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The headquarters of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and ODIN Technologies, as well as the former headquarters of ...

and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Launch

On 23 March 2016 (UTC), Cygnus CRS OA-6 was successfully launched by the Atlas V into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

. During the flight, the rocket had a first-stage anomaly that led to shutdown of the first-stage engine approximately five seconds before anticipated. The anomaly forced the Centaur upper stage of the rocket to fire for approximately one minute longer than planned, using reserved fuel margin, but did not significantly impact payload orbital insertion. The preplanned deorbit burn successfully deorbited the stage, but not precisely within the designated location. The issue marked the first Atlas V anomaly in over eight years to be publicly acknowledged by ULA.

Spacecraft

Cygnus OA-6 is the fifth of ten flights by

under the

contract with

. This was the second flight of the Enhanced sized Cygnus PCM. The delay of the NOAA

GOES-R GOES-16, formerly known as GOES-R before reaching geostationary orbit, is the first of the GOES-R series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration&n ...

satellite from March 2016 to October 2016 created this

launch opportunity for Cygnus OA-6 to be launched before

Cygnus OA-5 OA-5, previously known as Orbital-5, was the seventh planned flight of the Orbital Sciences' uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its sixth flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NAS ...

. The mission was launched on 23 March 2016. In keeping with an Orbital ATK tradition, this Cygnus spacecraft is named the S.S. ''

'' after the NASA astronaut who commanded the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'''s ill-fated

STS-107 STS-107 was the 113th flight of the Space Shuttle program, and the 28th and final flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003, and during its 15 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes ...

mission in 2003.

Manifest

Total weight of cargo: using Enhanced Cygnus. * Crew supplies: ** Crew care packages ** 169 Bulk overwrap bags of food ** 6 Bulk overwrap bags of U.S. food for Russian crew ** Hygiene towels for Russian crew ** Printer ink and paper * Vehicle hardware: ** Multiplexer-demultiplexer circuit cards ** Charcoal, brine and bacteria filters for ECLESS ** Water sampling kit ** Toilet inserts, urine receptacle with hose, toilet paper ** * Science and research: ** 20 Flock 2e' CubeSats ** Human Research Program resupply ** ** METEOR * Computer resources: ** New ZBook laptop and printer ** 160GB hard drive for IBM ThinkPad ** Canon XH camcorder, Ghost camera, Nikon cameras, 50mm lens, USB card reader ** Assorted cables ** * EVA (Spacewalk) gear: ** Legs, boots, arms and hard upper torso for spacesuit ** Socket caddy assembly ** METOX canisters for

carbon dioxide removal Carbon dioxide removal (CDR), also known as negative emissions, is a process in which carbon dioxide gas () is removed from the atmosphere and sequestered for long periods of time. Similarly, greenhouse gas removal (GGR) or negative greenho ...

** Contamination detection kit

Saffire-1

Saffire-1 is a

test to study

flammability A combustible material is something that can burn (i.e., ''combust'') in air. A combustible material is flammable if it ignites easily at ambient temperatures. In other words, a combustible material ignites with some effort and a flammable mat ...

and

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

propagation in space, using the CRS OA-6 after it has delivered cargo to the

. The spacecraft is fitted with various sensors and cameras to record data during what is expected to be a 20-minute fire, to determine how much fire resistance is needed in the ultra-light material used in the spacecraft and astronaut's gear. Cygnus OA-6 will later disintegrate as it enters the Earth's atmosphere.NASA to light large blaze in space as part of new fire safety experiment
AFP via

ABC News Online ABC News, or ABC News and Current Affairs, is a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcasting within Australia and the rest of the world, the service covers both local and world affairs. The division of ...

, 16 March 2016

Other ORB projects

After this Cygnus OA-6 flight,

plans to launch two more Cygnus cargo missions in 2016:

on 6 July 2016 and

Cygnus OA-7 OA-7, previously known as Orbital-7, is the eighth flight of the Orbital ATK uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its seventh flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The m ...

on 30 December 2016. They will be followed by three flights from the extended contract:

Cygnus OA-8E OA-8E was the ninth flight of the Orbital ATK uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its eighth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract with NASA. The mission launched on 12 Nov ...

on 12 June 2017, Cygnus OA-9E later in 2017 and Cygnus NG-10 in 2018. The schedules in early 2017 are dynamic, due to the first crewed commercial flights ( SpaceX,

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

) to ISS.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cygnus 006 Cygnus (spacecraft) Spacecraft launched by Atlas rockets Spacecraft launched in 2016 Spacecraft which reentered in 2016 Supply vehicles for the International Space Station