Cygnus Service Module Shipped to Kennedy Space Center for December
Launch
OA-4 Mission on Schedule to Meet Cargo Requirements for NASA
DULLES, Va.Oct. 12, 2015--
Orbital ATK, Inc. (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense
technologies, announced it has shipped the Cygnus spacecraft s service
module to NASA s Kennedy Space Center for the next International Space
Station (ISS) cargo mission, scheduled to launch on Thursday, December
3. Today s OA-4 mission milestone marks a key step forward as Orbital
ATK continues its cargo delivery service to the ISS for NASA under the
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.
The OA-4 service module departs Orbital ATK's Satellite Manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia for an upcoming launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo: Business Wire)
The Cygnus spacecraft will be assembled at Kennedy and launched aboard a
United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The mission serves as the first
flight of the enhanced variant of the Cygnus spacecraft, capable of
delivering more than 7,700 pounds of essential crew supplies, equipment
and scientific experiments to astronauts on board the ISS.
The service module, which houses the spacecraft s avionics, electrical,
propulsion and communications systems, will integrate with an extended
pressurized cargo module (PCM) already in place at the Kennedy Space
Center. The PCM s capability to deliver larger volumes of cargo to the
station aboard the powerful Atlas V provides even greater support to
NASA s continued research and utilization of the International Space
Station. The spacecraft will also use the latest in lightweight
space-qualified power system technology with the addition of the
company s Ultraflex solar arrays. OA-4 marks the first mission to use
the Ultraflex solar arrays which were produced by Orbital ATK s Space
Components Division.
These are exciting times for the Cygnus team at Orbital ATK, said
Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK s Space Systems Group. With
OA-4 set to launch in December and at least three additional missions to
the Space Station planned in 2016, we remain solidly on schedule to meet
our CRS cargo requirements for NASA. Our team s performance in meeting
milestones on an accelerated timeline demonstrates the company s
flexibility and responsiveness to customer needs.
Final assembly, cargo loading and fueling of the Cygnus spacecraft will
take place at the Kennedy Space Center prior to its integration with the
Atlas V rocket. Like most Orbital ATK spacecraft, Cygnus is designed to
be compatible with multiple launch vehicles. This capability supports
NASA s requirements for additional cargo and also provides better
schedule assurance for future missions.
While preparations continue for OA-4 later this year, three CRS missions
are scheduled for 2016 to support NASA s ISS cargo needs, leading off
with a second Atlas V launched mission from Kennedy Space Center in the
spring, followed by the return of operations to the Wallops Flight
Facility in the first half of the year where the company will continue
CRS missions on an upgraded Antares. The PCMs and Service Modules for
the three 2016 Cygnus spacecraft missions are essentially complete and
will be shipped to the respective launch sites a couple of months prior
to their launch dates.
Source: Orbital ATK, Inc.
Orbital ATK
Media Contact:
Vicki Cox, 703-406-5663
Cygnus
Public Relations
vicki.cox@orbitalatk.com
or
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barron.beneski@orbitalatk.com