OA-7, previously known as Orbital-7, is the eighth flight of the

Orbital ATK Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in February 9, 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Orbital ATK designed, built, and de ...

uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its seventh flight to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) 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 phase of CRS contracts (CRS-1) were sign ...

contract with

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

. The mission launched on 18 April 2017 at 15:11:26 UTC. Orbital and NASA jointly developed a new space transportation system to provide commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station (ISS). Under the

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) was a NASA program to spur the development of Private spaceflight, private spacecraft and launch vehicles for deliveries to the International Space Station (ISS). Launched in 2006, COTS successful ...

(COTS) program, then Orbital Sciences designed and built

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinisation of names, Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by ...

, a medium-class launch vehicle; Cygnus, an advanced maneuvering spacecraft, and a Pressurized Cargo Module which is provided by Orbital's industrial partner

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

. The Cygnus OA-7 is named the S.S. ''John Glenn'' in honor of astronaut and senator

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...

, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

Mercury-Atlas 6 Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was the first crewed American orbital spaceflight, which took place on February 20, 1962. Piloted by astronaut John Glenn and operated by NASA as part of Project Mercury, it was the fifth human spaceflight, preceded by Sov ...

and the oldest to go to space on STS-95, until 2021.

History

The COTS demonstration mission was successfully conducted in September 2013, and Orbital commenced operational ISS cargo missions under the Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) program with two missions in 2014. The third operational mission, Orb CRS-3, was not successful due to an

failure during launch. The company decided to discontinue the Antares 100 series and accelerate the introduction of a new propulsion system. The Antares system was upgraded with newly built RD-181 first stage engines to provide greater payload performance and increased reliability. In the meantime, the company contracted with United Launch Alliance (ULA) for two

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...

launches from

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

: CRS OA-4 flew in December 2015 and Cygnus OA-6 in March 2016. The first Cygnus mission on the new Antares 230 ( CRS OA-5) was delayed to October 2016 and performed successfully. This particular mission, known as OA-7, enabled Orbital ATK to cover their initial CRS contracted payload obligation. At NASA's request, OA-7 was switched from an Antares to an

rocket to increase the payload delivered to the ISS. Antares flights resumed with CRS OA-8E (the first of Orbital's extended contract with NASA) in November 2017. Production and integration of Cygnus spacecraft is performed in Dulles, Virginia. The Cygnus service module is mated with the pressurized cargo module at the launch site, and mission operations are conducted from control centers in Dulles, Virginia and

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Cygnus OA-7 launched on 18 April 2017 at 15:11:26 UTC aboard an

401 rocket. The freighter rendezvoused and was berthed to the ISS on 22 April 2017, where it remained for just under 43 days. NASA announced on 1 June 2017 its intention to unberth Cygnus a month ahead of schedule. In preparation for unberthing, Cygnus was grappled by Canadarm2 on 2 June 2017. Early on 4 June 2017, the bolts securing Cygnus to the station were retracted, and Canadarm2 unberthed the spacecraft at 11:05UTC. Crew members aboard the station maneuvered Cygnus to its release attitude, and at 13:10UTC the vehicle was released from Canadarm2. One minute later, Cygnus began carrying out a series of departure burns to move it away from the ISS. At approximately 20:00UTC, the SAFFIRE III experiment on board Cygnus was commanded to execute. This experiment involves the controlled ignition of spacecraft material samples to test how they burn in microgravity. On 8 June 2017, four LEMUR-2 CubeSats was deployed, one pair at 20:46UTC and the other pair at 23:46UTC. Reentry for Cygnus is scheduled for 11 June 2017; as the vehicle begins breaking up in Earth's atmosphere, three probes will be released as part of the RED-Data2 experiment, collecting data on how high-temperature materials react to reentry, as well as helping to characterize how spacecraft break up on reentry. Orbital ATK announced on 11 June 2017 that the OA-7 mission had formally ended at 17:08UTC with the reentry and destruction of the S.S. ''John Glenn''. The spacecraft reentered east of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

over the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, disposing of approximately of trash and unneeded hardware.

Spacecraft

This is the seventh of ten flights by

under the

contract with

. This is the fourth flight of the Enhanced-sized Cygnus PCM. The spacecraft and on-board payloads were processed at Kennedy's

Space Station Processing Facility The Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF), originally the Space Station Processing Facility, is a three-story industrial building at Kennedy Space Center for the Manufacturing of the International Space Station, manufacture and Process manufac ...

Manifest

OA-7 carried a total of of material into orbit. This included of pressurised cargo with packaging bound for the

, and of unpressurised cargo composed of four

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

s that will be released from the Cygnus spacecraft after unberthing from the ISS. OA-7 carried 34 other CubeSats that will be launched from the Kibō module on ISS, including 28 that were built by university students as part of the QB50 program.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cygnus 007 Cygnus (spacecraft) Spacecraft launched by Atlas rockets Spacecraft launched in 2017 Spacecraft which reentered in 2017 Supply vehicles for the International Space Station John Glenn

History

Spacecraft

Manifest

See also

References