Media certification is open for the launch of John Howard Northrop Grumman’s twelfth business resupply services mission aboard its Cygnus ballistic capsule to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and instrumentation to the International orbiter.
Northrop Grumman is targeting rise of its binary rocket for no ahead of 2:39 p.m. EDT Oct. twenty one from the eastern Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia. this can be the primary mission beneath Northrop’s business Resupply Services-2 contract with NASA.
To cover the prelaunch and launch activities at Wallops, international media while not U.S. citizenship should apply for credentials by Wed, Sept. 18. the appliance point in time for media WHO square measure U.S. voters is Oct. 15. All certification requests should be sent to Keith Koehler at keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov.
Each resupply mission to the station delivers scientific investigations within the areas of biology and biotechnology, Earth and area science, physical sciences, and technology development and demonstrations.
Highlights of orbiter analysis which will be expedited by analysis aboard this Cygnus mission include:
- The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 (AMS-02), mounted on the outside of the International orbiter, appearance for proof of dark, strange and anti-matter to assist North American country perceive however our universe was fashioned. A series of spacewalks square measure planned for later this year to prolong the operational lifetime of the AMS-02. Astronauts can cut and reconnect fluid lines, a achievement not done before in area, that may prove valuable for future missions at NASA’s coming satellite entryway or missions to Mars.
- The AstroRad Vest tests a special vest designed to guard astronauts from radiation caused by unpredictable star particle events. Astronauts can give input on the garment as they wear it whereas playacting daily tasks, together with however straightforward it’s to place on, however it fits and feels, and also the vary of motion it permits. Garment developers will use this input to enhance style. Use of the vest may defend crew members on missions to the Moon and Mars.
- The Zero-G kitchen appliance examines heat transfer properties and also the method of baking food in microgravity. It uses associate kitchen appliance designed specifically to be used aboard the orbiter, and should have application on future long-duration missions by giving the way to extend selection in flavor and nutrition of food for crew members.
- The created in area Recycler can check systems required to use plastic into 3D printing filament that may then be transferred to be used to the created in area producing Device, a 3D printer that has operated on the orbiting laboratory since 2016. This has implications for area conservation and region missions.
Northrop Grumman can use a replacement 24-hour late load capability on this mission. This innovative system includes a mobile white room and a removable portion of the payload fairing which will allow time-sensitive science experiments to be loaded into Cygnus as late as twenty four hours before rise.
Cargo resupply from U.S. corporations ensures a national capability to deliver important science analysis to the orbiter, considerably increasing NASA’s ability to conduct new investigations at the sole laboratory in area.
Read More: www.nasa.gov
