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Up until this key point, Orbital controllers at the Mission Control Center (MCC-D) in Dulles had full control over the vehicle, with NASA controllers at the Mission Control Center in Houston (MCC-H) joining the team for the tricky rendezvous and berthing of the Cygnus.<\/p>\n
There were a number of key items that had to be confirmed as showing they were in good working order to allow Cygnus to be eased towards its berthing on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
![\"ISS](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Z6.jpg\" "\\"ISS")
These items included a strong communication link, required not least for the ability to manually abort the approach \u2013 or at least retreat \u2013 in the event of problems.<\/p>\nThis phase of the mission was called the Joint Operations Phase (JOPS), as overviewed in documentation acquired by L2.<\/p>\n
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This critical approach period \u2013 also known as Proximity Ops \u2013 involved Cygnus using the JEM PROX system for direct communications with ISS, effectively resulting in the use of the same system Japan\u2019s HTV uses for arriving at the ISS, as much as there was a number of different settings employed for Cygnus\u2019 arrival.<\/p>\n
![\"Z23\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Z231.jpg\")
As with SpaceX\u2019s Dragon, Cygnus stalked the ISS, slowly creeping up to its target via a large series of approach milestones to test its systems.<\/p>\nAs the Orbital spacecraft eased up the R-bar, under the ISS, it entered the KOS (Keep Out Sphere).<\/p>\n
Once inside the KOS, Cygnus demonstrated that it could hold and retreat, prior to receiving the go \u2013 via polling \u2013 to proceed, mirroring the tasks it underwent during the ORB-D mission.<\/p>\n
Following a review of the data \u2013 including the passing of the final milestone relating to the lock on of the LIDAR sensors \u2013 a final go was given for Cygnus to approach to the capture point.<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/A107.jpg\")
Cygnus was using Jena LIDARs (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors for this mission, as it did for the ORB-D flight.<\/p>\nCygnus will eventually \u2013 from ORB-2 onwards \u2013 begin to incorporate the use of the TriDAR vision system \u2013 designed by Canadian company Neptec, with the support of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.<\/p>\n
This system provides real-time visual guidance for navigation, rendezvous and docking procedures \u2013 and was successfully tested as a parting gift from the Shuttle fleet, flying on three missions, namely with Discovery on STS-128 and STS-131, prior to its final shuttle trip with Atlantis on STS-135.<\/p>\n
![\"Z22\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Z222.jpg\")
With everything going to plan, the focus then switched to capturing the spacecraft via the ISS\u2019 Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS).<\/p>\nThe Station\u2019s arm was already reaching out ahead of arrival, as Cygnus closed in for grapple at 11:08am UTC, prior to robotic operations to berth the new arrival, a process that was completed \u2013 via first and second stage capture \u2013 at 1:05pm UTC.<\/p>\n
Now berthed, the ISS crew begin vestibule ops and Cygnus activation via ISS power jumpers on rendezvous day, documented as a nine hour procedure.<\/p>\n
Hatch opening and ingress was scheduled to occur early on Monday morning. However, the crew had the option to press ahead with the procedures during Sunday, which they completed with ease.<\/p>\n
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Cygnus\u2019 hatch is very similar to a standard US segment hatch, albeit slightly smaller, making it a familiar sight to the ISS crewmembers. A ventilation duct was hooked up, and the spacecraft cleared of any dust prior to becoming safe to ingress without eye protection and masks.<\/p>\n
![\"Inside](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Z8.jpg\" "\\"Inside")
With the hatch open, crewmembers began cargo removal operations, a phase of the mission known as the Berthed Operations Phase (BOPS).<\/p>\nCargo ops involves the crew removing the \u201ctop layers\u201d on PORT and STBD pallets to make room in PCM. They will then remove components of the Secondary Structure as required, ahead of emptying the FWD and AFT pallets to gain access to the Standoff pallets, which they will empty and repack.<\/p>\n
The reverse sequence will be employed until the vehicle has been repacked, although all the return cargo won\u2019t be classed as downmass, because \u2013 unlike Dragon \u2013 Cygnus won\u2019t be returning to the ground or water.<\/p>\n
![\"Re-entry\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Z10.jpg\" "\\"Re-entry\\"")
Instead, it\u2019ll be sent on a path to a destructive re-entry.<\/p>\nThe final phase of the mission \u2013 a reverse of the berthing procedures \u2013 is called the Descent & Reentry Operations Phase (DROPS), as Cygnus ends its life in a disposal corridor during entry, marking the conclusion to what will be the first of a series of CRS mission for the Cygnus fleet.<\/p>\n
The deal to carry out ISS resupply flights \u2013 under the $1.9 billion CRS contract \u2013 encompasses eight missions between 2012 and 2015 carrying approximately 20,000 kg of cargo to the ISS.<\/p>\n
It is possible that additional missions will be ordered, based on the recent US decision to back an extension of the ISS\u2019 lifetime to 2024.<\/p>\n
(Images: via L2\u2019s Cygnus Section \u2013 Containing presentations, videos, a vast set of unreleased hi-res images, interactive high level updates and more, with additional images via Orbital and NASA).<\/p>\n
(Click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ \u2013 to view how you can support NSF and access the best space flight content on the entire internet).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Orbital\u2019s Cygnus spacecraft has marked her second arrival at the International Space Station (ISS), this time under its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) call sign of CRS-1. After proving its ability to conduct what was a complicated rendezvous with the orbital outpost last year, the ORB-1 spacecraft was grabbed by the Station\u2019s robotic arm at 11:08 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2304,639,233,7577],"class_list":["post-39668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-crs","tag-cygnus","tag-iss","tag-orbital"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}