CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA’s newest delivery service made its first shipment to the International Space Station on Sunday, another victory for the booming commercial space sector, which has its sights set on also launching astronauts.
Orbital Sciences Corp.’s unmanned cargo ship, the Cygnus, pulled up at the orbiting lab with a half-ton of meals and treats for the station astronauts, who assisted in the feat.
With the smooth linkup, Orbital Sciences of Virginia became only the second company to accomplish such a shipment. The California-based SpaceX company took the lead last year.
NASA officials and White House representatives declared it a historic day.
“It was just a very, very impressive job … I just couldn’t be happier and more proud,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, the NASA manager overseeing the commercial effort.
Now that the space station has two U.S. private companies capable of delivering goods, he said, “It’s certainly relief and something we’re ready to celebrate.”
The Cygnus - named after the swan constellation - should have arrived Sept. 22, four days after its launch from Virginia. But a discrepancy in navigation data between the capsule and the space station led to a delay.
A simple software repair was carried out by ground controllers. Then, the Cygnus had to wait for a Russian spacecraft to deliver three new astronauts to the station before making its approach.
The wait involved “some hair-pulling and heartache,” said Orbital Sciences Executive Vice President Frank Culbertson. But the mission ultimately resulted in a perfect rendezvous demonstration.
Applause could be heard in Mission Control once Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano grabbed hold of Cygnus with the space station’s mechanical arm, about 260 miles above the Indian Ocean. The capsule was soon latched securely to the orbiting lab. Its hatch will remain closed until early today, when the six station astronauts will enter the capsule and begin unloading the shipment.
The successful arrival means Orbital Sciences can start making good on a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for more Cygnus deliveries, each one carrying greater loads. The next one could fly by Christmas.
“We have a big incentive ahead of us,” said Culbertson, a former astronaut who lived on the space station a decade ago.
John Holdren, assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology, said Sunday’s success validates the president’s goal of focusingNASA on deep-space exploration and leaving station cargo and astronaut hauls to private industry.
“Space history was made again today,” Holdren said in a statement.
Sunday’s operation culminated several years of effort for Orbital Sciences, which was hired by NASA along with SpaceX - formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. - to keep the space station well stocked in the post-shuttle era.
SpaceX has been launching its supply ships, called Dragons, from Cape Canaveral for more than a year. It’s also working on a possible manned capsule that would ferry U.S. astronauts to the space station, rather than having them hitch rides on Russian rockets. The cargo contract with NASA alone is worth $1.6 billion.
As Orbital Sciences celebrated its victory, SpaceX on Sunday launched a beefed-up Falcon 9 rocket with a Canadian science satellite from Southern California. The demo flight appeared to go well.
Unlike the SpaceX Dragon, which can return items to Earth, the Cygnus is designed to burn up upon descent. Once unloaded of its 1,300 pounds worth of food, clothes and other items, it will be filled with trash and cut loose on Oct. 22. That’s how the Russian, European and Japanese supply ships end up as well: self-destructing garbage cans.
Both the station crew and Mission Control paid tribute to the late astronaut for whom the Cygnus is dedicated: G. David Low.
Low flew three times on space shuttles, then went to work for Orbital Sciences. He died of cancer in 2008 at age 52. His family attended the Cygnus launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
“To our great friend and colleague G. David Low … This one’s for you,” Orbital Sciences said via Twitter.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 09/30/2013