-- Company s Cygnus Cargo Logistics Spacecraft Successfully Unberthed
from Station and Reentered Earth s Atmosphere --
-- First of Eight Operational Cargo Resupply Missions Using Antares
and Cygnus Currently Scheduled for December --
DULLES, Va.Oct. 23, 2013--
Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE:ORB), one of the world s leading
space technology companies, today confirmed that its Cygnus cargo
logistics spacecraft reentered Earth s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean
east of New Zealand at approximately 2:15 p.m. (EDT). Cygnus unberthed
from the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday following its
23-day stay at the station. The successful conclusion to its
demonstration mission also completes the Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services (COTS) joint research and development initiative
with NASA. Orbital is now ready to begin regularly scheduled resupply
flights to the station later this year as part of a $1.9 billion Cargo
Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.
The moment of release of Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft was captured on NASA TV yesterday in this screen shot that shows the International Space Station's robotic arm, known as the "Canadarm" releasing the spacecraft during the departure procedures. Today, at approximately 2:15 p.m. (EDT), the Cygnus spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere, marking the end of the highly successful cargo resupply demonstration mission Orbital conducted with its NASA partners. (Photo: Business Wire)
Upon the successful unberthing and departure from the ISS yesterday,
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, Congratulations to the teams at
Orbital and NASA who worked hard to make this demonstration mission to
the International Space Station an overwhelming success. Orbital s
success today is helping make NASA s future exploration to farther
destinations possible.
For the COTS demonstration mission, Orbital launched its Antares rocket
carrying its Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft on September 18 from the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at NASA s Wallops Flight
Facility in eastern Virginia. Following its launch and in-orbit testing
and demonstration maneuvers, Cygnus rendezvoused and berthed with the
ISS on September 29. Prior to its departure from the station yesterday,
the astronauts loaded the cargo module with nearly 3,000 lbs. of
unneeded items for disposal.
With the COTS development phase now successfully completed, we are now
turning our full attention to the eight operational resupply missions
covered by our Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, said
Frank Culbertson, Orbital s Executive Vice President and General Manager
of its Advanced Programs Group. Each Cygnus is capable of delivering a
large quantity of pressurized cargo, totaling up to 20,000 kg over the
eight missions, including crew supplies, spare parts and equipment, and
scientific experiments for the ISS. We are looking forward to starting
these missions in December.
Over the past five years, Orbital privately developed the Antares launch
vehicle to provide low-cost, reliable access to space for medium-class
payloads, while also developing the Cygnus spacecraft in conjunction
with NASA under the COTS program to meet the stringent safety
requirements for ISS operations. Together these products showcased
Orbital s ability to apply commercial business practices and engineering
approaches to significantly shorten development timelines and lower
operational costs of sophisticated space systems as compared to
traditional government-run programs.
About Cygnus
Orbital developed the Cygnus cargo spacecraft as part of its COTS joint
research and development initiative with NASA. Cygnus consists of a
common Service Module (SM) and a Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM). The SM
incorporates avionics, power, propulsion and communications systems
already successfully flown aboard dozens of Orbital s LEOStar and
GEOStar satellites. The PCM, designed and built by Thales Alenia Space
under a subcontract from Orbital, is based on the Multi-Purpose
Logistics Module (MPLM) previously used with the Space Shuttle. With a
full load of cargo and fuel, the standard-configuration Cygnus weighs
about 11,000 lbs. at launch and generates 3.5 kw of electrical power
while in orbit. It is capable of extended-duration missions of a year or
longer in space.
About Antares
The Antares medium-class launch vehicle provides a major increase in the
payload launch capability that Orbital can provide to NASA, the U.S. Air
Force and commercial customers. The Antares rocket can launch spacecraft
weighing up to 14,000 lbs. into low-Earth orbit, as well as
lighter-weight payloads into higher-energy orbits. Orbital s newest
launcher is currently on-ramped to both the NASA Launch Services-2 and
the U.S. Air Force s Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contracts, enabling
the two largest U.S. government space launch customers to order Antares
for right-size and right-price launch services for medium-class
spacecraft. Antares made its debut earlier this year with a fully
successful inaugural launch on April 21, followed up by another
successful launch of the COTS demonstration mission on September 18.
About Orbital
Orbital develops and manufactures small- and medium-class rockets and
space systems for commercial, military and civil government customers.
The company s primary products are satellites and launch vehicles,
including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous-Earth orbit and planetary
spacecraft for communications, remote sensing, scientific and defense
missions; human-rated space systems for Earth-orbit, lunar and other
missions; ground- and air-launched rockets that deliver satellites into
orbit; and missile defense systems that are used as interceptor and
target vehicles. Orbital also provides satellite subsystems and
space-related technical services to government agencies and
laboratories. More information about Orbital can be found at http://www.orbital.com.
Follow the company on Twitter @OrbitalSciences.
Source: Orbital Sciences Corporation
Orbital Sciences Corporation
Barron Beneski, 703-406-5528
Public
and Investor Relations
beneski.barron@orbital.com