Category: ISS
-
AJ26 Turbo Pump most likely doomed Cygnus launch
Orbital announced today that the preliminary findings of the Accident Investigation Board (AIB) point to a Turbo pump failure in one of the two AJ26 main engines on the Antares rocket. Because of this Orbital will no longer use the AJ26 engines and will instead accelerate the migration to a new engine on the Antares. Due…
-
Orbital CRS-3 Update 10/30/2014
Launch Site Status: Based on initial sweeps conducted by an Orbital safety team, it appears a significant amount of debris remains on the site and it is likely substantial hardware evidence will be available to aid in determining root cause of the Antares launch failure. Some of the Cygnus cargo has also been found and…
-
Progress 57 arrives at the International Space Station
Fifteen hours after the lose of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft another cargo vehicle from Russia arrived successfully at the station. Launched just six hours before, the Progress 57 completed it’s four orbit, six hour journey to the station with a successful docking at 9:08am EDT. Carrying almost three tonnes of supplies for the station,…
-
ISS Spacewalk EVA-40 (184) completed successfully
The third spacewalk in as many weeks has been completed successfully by Cosmonauts Maksim Surayev and Aleksandr Samokutyayev, originally planned for approximately 6 hours the two worked way ahead of the timeline bringing the spacewalk to an end over 2 hours early. They completed the following tasks during the spacewalk – Removed and jettisoned Radiometriya…
-
ISS Spacewalk EVA-28 completed successfully
While traveling at 17,133 mph 261 miles above the Earth Astronauts Reid Wiseman and Butch E. Wilmore took a 6h 34m excursion outside the space station today to perform a number of tasks needed for the continued operation and future changes to the ISS. The first task they completed was the replacement of the Power…
-
CCtCap is Back On
On Oct. 9, under statutory authority available to it, NASA has decided to proceed with the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts awarded to The Boeing Company and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. notwithstanding the bid protest filed at the U.S. Government Accountability Office by Sierra Nevada Corporation. The agency recognizes that failure to provide the…
-
ISS Spacewalk US EVA-27 completed successfully
Today NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman and ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst steps outside the International Space Station for a 6h 13m spacewalk. This was the first spacewalk for each of the Astronauts and was completed successfully. This was the 182nd spacewalk in support of the ISS for a total of 47d 14h 15m, During the spacewalk…
-
Soyuz TMA-14M hatches opened
The three crew members Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Yelena Serova and Barry E. Wilmore aboard the Soyuz TMA-14M have now entered their home for the next six months. Following a smooth docking, leak checks were performed and the hatches opened allowing the crew to enter the station. Just before the hatches opened NASA confirmed that after the docking…
-
TMA-14M launches successfully
A Soyuz TMA-14M carrying cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyayev, the first female cosmonaut Yelena Serova and astronaut Barry E. Wilmore lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:25pm EDT to begin a four orbit, six hour journey to the International Space Station to complete the Expedition 41 crew complement. Following a smooth ride to orbit the spacecraft transitioned…
-
SpaceX CRS-4 Mission Launches Successfully
At 1:52:04am EDT today a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station for the fourth CRS mission under the NASA’s commercial cargo program. The launch originally scheduled for yesterday had to be scrubbed due to weather constrains. Unlike the recent satellite launches which had long launch…