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First private resupply mission to the ISS of 2014 today!

maccollo

By maccollo
in Science & Spaceflight

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maccollo

maccollo

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The first private resupply mission was SpaceX CRS-1 in 2012.

y u no read title thoroughly?

In any case, throwing the superficial "first of this year" thing aside, it is the first resupply mission for Orbital Sciences in their 1.9 billion dollar contract with NASA, so I'm guessing it's quite an important launch for them.

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AeroEngy

AeroEngy

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Kryten is right. Launch delayed, probable launch tomorrow 1.10 pm EST http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Orb-1/MissionUpdate/index.shtml

Solar proton flux is falling but still remains pretty high. I suspect they will launch tomorrow if possible but it could be pushed back even farther just to be safe.

From the NOAA space weather center:

SWPC Forecasters are anticipating G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm conditions to occur on January 9 and 10. The source of this disturbance is a fairly fast Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) launched from centrally-located Region 1944 at 1832 UTC (1:32 p.m. EST) on January 7. Full evaluation and modeling of this event has refined the forecast and indicates a fairly direct interaction with Earth, with the WSA-Enlil model putting arrival mid-morning UTC on January 9 (very early morning EST).

noaa_proton_G8_3d.gif

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Motokid600

Motokid600

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Sucks about the delay.

So Antares is a liquid fuel first stage and a solid second... Isn't that backwards? Or is there a 3rd stage in Cygnus itself that makes the final boost to orbit?

Edit: .. That CME is said to hit tomorrow. So my bet is this launch gets pushed back a lot further.. ISS supplies gotta be getting thin.

Edited by Motokid600
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NovaSilisko

NovaSilisko

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Theyre using a solid upper stage. What crazyness...

Well, you can know exactly how much delta-v you have on that upper stage + payload, so depending on how big of a payload there is, you can shut the first stage down/ignite the second stage at different times. It's pretty common practice, arguably just as common as liquid upper stages.

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Guest

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Some rockets are only solid fuel.

How's that for rocket science?

Well, you can launch cargoes with them, but I wouldn't like to sit on top of one. :)

And yeah, Cygnus has an OMS that would take care of the maneuvers after orbital insertion. On most solid-only rockets there's an (usually hydrazine-powered) upper stage for precise adjustments, or the payload itself has an OMS system. Solids are cheap, but work poorly for precise insertions.

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DerekL1963

DerekL1963

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Well, you can launch cargoes with them, but I wouldn't like to sit on top of one. :)

Why not? They're just as safe as liquids.

And yeah, Cygnus has an OMS that would take care of the maneuvers after orbital insertion. On most solid-only rockets there's an (usually hydrazine-powered) upper stage for precise adjustments, or the payload itself has an OMS system. Solids are cheap, but work poorly for precise insertions.

Properly specced and manufactured, they can be *very* precise. But yeah, even big ballistic missiles pretty much all have some kind of PBCS for final velocity trim.

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DerekL1963

DerekL1963

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Unless they explode, once lit they don't stop. Like the Challenger accident.

Liquids are perfectly safe unless they explode too.

Techniques to render a solid fuel motor non propulsive are old hat. (AFAIK, first used operationally on the Polaris A-1 and SUBROC back in the 50's.) That NASA didn't use them on the Shuttle is the result of a deliberate design decision, not natural law.

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NovaSilisko

NovaSilisko

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Solids are cheap, but work poorly for precise insertions.

A good number of space probes have used solid upper stages. Being space probes they of course require the most precise of trajectories - and in most cases the solid upper stages are able to get them to within a few tens of m/s of the correct velocity. New horizons for instance has only expended about 20 m/s delta-v, so far, and it used a solid kick stage to help propel it to solar escape velocity.

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