3-2-1 liftoff! Antares launches NG-13 Cygnus into space
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Antares with the NG-13 Cygnus spacecraft launches Feb. 15, 2020, from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
After two scrubbed attempts, Northrop Grumman was finally able to launch its Antares rocket to get the company’s NG-13 Cygnus cargo ship into space and on a path toward the International Space Station.
The Antares 230+ rocket lifted off at 20:21 UTC (3:21 p.m. EST) Feb. 15, 2020, from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. Encapsulated atop the 42.5-meter-tall, two-stage rocket was the NG-13 Cygnus spacecraft with some 3,700 kilograms of supplies bound for the space station’s Expedition 62 crew.
This was the third try for the company to get the rocket and spacecraft off the ground and into space. The first attempt came on Feb. 9, but was called off minutes before the planned 22:39 UTC liftoff because of “off-nominal data” from ground support equipment.
A second attempt on Feb. 14 — Valentine's Day — was called off because of higher than acceptable upper-level winds. The weather for both attempts, at least on the ground, was nearly perfect.
Getting into orbit
Once the countdown reached zero for the third, ultimately-successful attempt, the two RD-181 first stage engines ignited and spooled up to full power within a couple seconds before being released by the launch mount.
The rocket then began climbing upward before arching out over the Atlantic Ocean on a southeasterly trajectory to line up with the space station’s 51.6-degree orbital inclination.
For its part, the first stage produced roughly 3,800 kilonewtons of thrust for about three-and-a-half minutes. Once it’s liquid-oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propellants were consumed, the first stage separated and fell away.
Some 30 seconds later, the payload fairing fell away, closely followed by the interstage, to reveal the Cygnus spacecraft and the Castor 30XL solid rocket motor upper stage.
Once clear of the interstage and fairing, the upper stage ignited and burned for roughly 2.5 minutes, producing upward of 470 kilonewtons of thrust. This ultimately placed Cygnus in a roughly 200-kilometer orbit.
At about nine minutes after liftoff, the Cygnus spacecraft separated from the upper stage to begin its multi-day trek to the International Space Station.
Cygnus is roughly 6.3 meters long and 3.1 meters wide. It has a “three-bay” pressurized compartment and a service module at its base with two UltraFlex solar arrays, which are stowed during launch.
The spacecraft’s first major task on its own was the deployment of these twin UltraFlex solar arrays to power the vehicle for the duration of its mission.
Northrop Grumman named the spacecraft SS Robert Lawrence Jr., who in June 1967 was selected to be the United States' first black astronaut as part of the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory program. However, he never flew into space as he was killed when the F-104 Starfighter he was flying backseat crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Dec. 8, 1967.
Ultimately, no astronauts flew missions for the Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory program as it was canceled in June 1969.
Science for Expedition 62 and beyond!
Included among the cargo are several science experiments and hardware, including a tissue and cell-culturing facility called Mobile SpaceLab, a new miniature scanning electron microscope with spectroscopy called Mochii, an OsteoOmics investigation, the Veggie-03 experiment as well as the fourth Spacecraft Fire Experiment, also called Saffire-IV.
Should all go as expected, NG-13 Cygnus should arrive at the ISS in around 9:00 UTC Feb. 18 to be captured by the outpost’s 17.6-meter-long Canadarm2 remote manipulator system.
Within a couple hours of being captured, the spacecraft will be berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Unity module where it is expected to stay until May.
During that time, the vehicle’s cargo and science equipment will be offloaded and dispersed throughout the outpost. At the same time, trash will be loaded into Cygnus to be disposed of at the end of the spacecraft’s life once it leaves the outpost and is ultimately deorbited to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The next cargo ship slated to launch toward the ISS is SpaceX’s CRS-20 cargo Dragon spacecraft. As of this publication, it is expected to launch at 6:45 UTC March 2, 2020, and arrive at the outpost on March 4.
