JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accused Iran of attacking an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman last week, a mysterious explosion that further spiked security concerns in the region.
Without offering any evidence to his claim, Netanyahu told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that “it was indeed an act by Iran, that’s clear.”
“Iran is the greatest enemy of Israel, I am determined to halt it. We are hitting it in the entire region,” Netanyahu said. Iran promptly dismissed the charges.
The blast struck the Israeli-owned MV Helios Ray, a Bahamian-flagged roll-on, roll-off vehicle cargo ship, as it was sailing out of the Middle East on its way to Singapore on Friday. The crew was unharmed, but the vessel sustained two holes on its port side and two on its starboard side just above the waterline, according to American defense officials.
The ship came to Dubai’s port for repairs on Sunday, days after the blast that revived security concerns in Mideast waterways amid heightened tensions with Iran.
Iran has sought to pressure the U.S. to lift sanctions on Tehran as President Joe Biden’s administration considers option for returning to negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Biden has said repeatedly the U.S. would return to the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from in 2018 only after Iran restores its full compliance with the accord.
The explosion on the Israeli-owned ship last week recalled the tense summer of 2019, when the U.S. military accused Iran of attacking several oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman with limpet mines, designed to be attached magnetically to a ship’s hull. The Gulf of Oman leads through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage for the world’s oil supplies. Tehran has denied the accusations that it was behind the limpet mine attacks.
It remains unclear what caused Friday’s blast on the Helios Ray. The vessel had discharged cars at various ports in the Persian Gulf before the explosion forced it to reverse course. Over the weekend, Israel’s defense minister and army chief had both indicated they held Iran responsible for what they said was an attack on the vessel.
Iran responded to Netanyahu’s statement saying it “strongly rejected” the claim that it was behind the attack. In a press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Netanyahu was “suffering from an obsession with Iran” and described his charges as “fear-mongering.”
Khatibzadeh also accused Israel of taking “suspicious actions in the region” against Iran in recent months to undermine the 2015 nuclear deal, without elaborating, and vowed Iran would respond.
“Israel knows very well that our response in the field of national security has always been fierce and accurate,” he said.
Overnight, Syrian state media reported a series of alleged Israeli airstrikes near Damascus, saying air defense systems had intercepted most of the missiles. Israeli media reports said the alleged airstrikes were on Iranian targets in response to the ship attack.
Israel has struck hundreds of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in recent years, and Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence there. Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah have provided military support to Syrian President Bashar Assad in the more than decade-long Syrian civil war.
The Israeli military declined comment.
Iran also has blamed Israel for a recent series of attacks, including another mysterious explosion last summer that destroyed an advanced centrifuge assembly plant at its Natanz nuclear facility and the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top Iranian scientist who founded the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program two decades ago. Iran has repeatedly vowed to avenge Fakhrizadeh’s killing.
“It is most important that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons, with or without an agreement, this I also told to my friend Biden,” Netanyahu said Monday.
Iranian threats of retaliation have raised alarms in Israel since the signing of normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in September.
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Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket lifts off Saturday from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Credit: NASA/Patrick Black
An Antares launcher rocketed into orbit Saturday from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, deploying a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship carrying nearly 8,400 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, the the most massive collection of payloads ever flown to the research outpost on a U.S. commercial freighter.
The Antares rocket lit its two Russian-made RD-181 engines and took off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, at 12:36:50 p.m. EST (1736:50 GMT) Saturday. The on-time launch was the 14th flight by an Antares rocket and the 16th mission by a Cygnus cargo ship, which Northrop Grumman named the S.S. Katherine Johnson after the trailblazing NASA mathematician portrayed in “Hidden Figures.”
Burning a mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen, the RD-181 engines steered the 139-foot-tall (42.5-meter) Antares rocket over the Atlantic Ocean on a trajectory to line up with the orbit of the space station. Between three and four minutes after liftoff, the Antares shed its first stage and payload shroud, giving way to the rocket’s solid-fueled Castor 30XL upper stage to complete a nearly three-minute burn to enter orbit.
The 17,723-pound (8,039-kilogram) Cygnus cargo ship separated from the Antares rocket nearly nine minutes into the mission, ready for its nearly two-day pursuit of the space station.
The Cygnus was scheduled to unfurl its two fan-shaped solar arrays to begin generating electricity a couple of hours after launch. A series of thruster firings will position the cargo freighter near the space station early Monday for a final approach, culminating in capture of the Cygnus with the space station’s robotic arm around 4:40 a.m. EST (0940 GMT).
Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will operate the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm to grapple the Cygnus cargo craft. The space station soared more than 250 miles, or 400 kilometers, over the Wallops launch base minutes before liftoff of the Antares rocket, and Noguchi tweeted a spectacular photo of Virginia’s Eastern Shore, showing the region covered by scattered clouds, and a blanket of snow to the west.
Hey, #Virginia! #ISS just flew over you!!! Waiting #Cygnus NG-15 launch in 10 minutes!!!! シグナス宇宙船打ち上げが迫るバージニア州を通過！ pic.twitter.com/cQqyfrZSBM
— NOGUCHI, Soichi 野口 聡－（のぐち そういち） (@Astro_Soichi) February 20, 2021
Northrop Grumman names its Cygnus supply ships after pioneers in spaceflight. The Cygnus flying on the NG-15 mission is named for Katherine Johnson, a mathematician whose trajectory calculations were critical to the success of NASA’s earliest space missions.
“It’s our tradition to name each Cygnus after an individual who’s played a pivotal role in human spaceflight, and Mrs. Johnson was selected for her hand-written calculations that helped launch the first Americans into space, as well as her accomplishments in breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling as a Black woman,” said Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager for tactical space at Northrop Grumman.
The NG-15 mission’s cargo load adds up to 8,399 pounds, or 3,810 kilograms, including packaging and unpressurized equipment to assist in the deployment of several CubeSats at the end of the flight. That’s more than any previous commercial cargo mission to the space station.
NASA has contracts with Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corp. for resupply flights to the station. SpaceX has launched 21 operational Dragon cargo missions to date, and the record cargo payload for a Dragon capsule is 6,913 pounds, or 3,136 kilograms, on a mission launched April 2016.
While SpaceX’s Dragon brings cargo back to Earth, the Cygnus is a single-use spacecraft, and it carries away trash from the space station at the end of its mission before burning up in the atmosphere.
Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spaceplane has not flown in space yet. Its first cargo mission to the space station is scheduled for 2022.
Here is a breakdown of the cargo on the NG-15 mission:
A few minutes after releasing the Cygnus spacecraft to fly to the space station, the Antares rocket was expected to deploy 30 tiny student-built “ThinSats” from containers on the second stage. Each ThinSat is about the size of a slice of bread, and were integrated with sensors, transmitters, and circuit boards by students ranging in age from 4th grade to college from 13 states and the District of Columbia.
The ThinSat program is a partnership between the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which runs the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Northrop Grumman, Twiggs Space Lab, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, and NearSpace Labs. The program is aimed at promoting education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or STEM, fields.
The first 63 ThinSats launched on an Antares rocket in 2019. By releasing the tiny satellites in a low-altitude orbit, engineers can ensure the ThinSats naturally re-enter the atmosphere and burn up within a few days, minimizing their risk of becoming space junk.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will enter the Cygnus spacecraft within hours of its arrival Monday. They will unpack the experiments and supplies inside the cargo craft’s pressurized compartment, built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy.
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket takes off from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at 12:36 p.m. EST (1736 GMT) Saturday. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now
The Cygnus will deliver a brine processor assembly for the space station’s water recycling system, which converts urine into fresh drinking water. NASA says the new brine processor will demonstrate an ability to recover more water from urine brine than feasible with current space station equipment, helping close the gap to meet requirements for long-duration human exploration missions to the moon and Mars.
The brine processor works by using special membranes to separate contaminants from the brine and allow water vapor to pass into the cabin atmosphere, where a condensing heat exchanger captures and delivers it to the station system that generates fresh water.
“Long-duration crewed exploration missions require about 98% water recovery, and there is currently no state-of- the-art technology in brine processing that can help achieve this goal,” NASA officials wrote in a fact sheet. “This brine processor system plans to close this gap for the urine waste stream of the space station.”
The Cygnus mission is also carrying a new sleeping quarters for the space station’s seven-person crew. There are currently five crew members on the space station’s U.S. segment, with four astronauts who flew to the outpost on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in November, and astronaut Kate Rubins, who arrived in October on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
But the U.S. segment only has four sleep stations. Astronaut Mike Hopkins, commander of the Crew Dragon mission, has slept inside the SpaceX capsule docked to the space station.
Other hardware inside the Cygnus supply ship includes spare parts and support equipment for the space station’s toilets, and tanks of air to recharge the breathable atmosphere inside the space lab.
One of the research experiments on the NG-15 mission will investigate how microgravity affects the manufacturing of protein-based artificial retinas. Led by a Connecticut-based startup company named LambdaVision, the experiment is a follow-up to an investigation flown to the space station in 2018 that produced “very encouraging” results, according to Nicole Wagner, president and CEO of LambdaVision.
The company uses a “layer-by-layer” process to manufacture artificial retinas, which could be implanted in patients suffering from retinal degenerative diseases.
“This is the second of what we expect to be many, many flights (to the space station),” said Jordan Greco, chief scientific officer at LambdaVision. “This particular layering trial allows allow us to continue to gather critical information on the design of the system and to continue to probe the influence of microgravity on this layering process.”
“The work that we’re sending on NG-15 is we’re sending the protein materials, and we’re actually going to manufacture the artificial retina on the ISS. So we’re doing this layer by layer process on-board the International Space Station, and then those films will then be returned back to Earth for analysis,” Wagner said.
With funding support from NASA, LambdaVision is looking at extending the layer-by-layer manufacturing process to other applications besides artificial retinas, Wagner said.
The retina implants being developed by LambdaVision can restore “high-resolution vision” to patients by replacing the function of light-sensing rods and cones inside the eye, according to Wagner. The artificial retinas consist of a light-activated protein.
“We are just thrilled to have a chance to establish a foundation for producing products in low Earth orbit with true clinical benefits to patients, and in our casem for patients that are blinded by this devastating retinal degenerative disease,” Greco said.
The mission patch for Northrop Grumman’s NG-15 mission. Credit: Northrop Grumman
Another experiment on the NG-15 mission will measure muscle strength in multiple generations of worms, including animals reared in space. Humans lose strength during long-duration space missions, but scientists want to better understand the biological changes caused by microgravity.
“To understand the biology, our project is focused on taking these … worms and looking at how the strength of these worms is changing,” said Siva Vanapalli, a professor of chemical engineering at Texas Tech University, and principal investigator of the experiment.
The experiment launched with 1,000 worm larvae that will grow during the mission. The worms will produce offspring several times in space, according to Vanapalli.
A new device, called NemaFlex, will measure the worms’ muscle forces continuously. “If we do observe that our device is able to record these changes in strength, that opens up tremendous opportunities in conducting experiments on different drugs and figuring out how to maintain and improve the health of astronauts,” Vanapalli said.
The Cygnus will deliver to the space station a high-performance commercial off-the-shelf computer from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Engineers will test the computer’s ability to process scientific data in space, potentially enabling researchers to produce quicker results from their experiments, according to NASA.
The cargo mission also carries a radiation detector that will fly on NASA’s Orion spacecraft. A successful test of the radiation monitor on the space station would validate the unit to fly on the first crewed Orion mission, Artemis 2, to the moon in 2023, NASA said.
Several small nanosatellites are stowed aboard the Cygnus cargo craft for release into orbit in the coming months.
The Gunsmoke-J technology demonstration satellite is a 3U CubeSat for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, which aims to prove the usefulness of an Earth-imaging payload for tactical use by military combat troops.
“This science and technology effort will provide new and advanced capabilities to the tactical warfighters in a small satellite that is about the size of a loaf of bread,” the Army said in a press release last year. “The effort will also help inform future acquisition decisions.”
The Gunsmoke-J satellite and two other small satellites for unspecified U.S. government customers launched inside the Cygnus spacecraft’s pressurized module. Before the craft departs the International Space Station later this year, astronauts will place the satellites on rail deployer on the Cygnus hatch for separation after the freighter leaves the complex.
Spaceflight, the Seattle-based rideshare launch broker, arranged launch services for the Gunsmoke-J and the two other U.S. government satellites.
Several other CubeSats are also aboard the Cygnus cargo freighter. One is named IT-SPINS, and it will collect images of the ionosphere over the night side of the Earth during a six-month research mission. The IT-SPINS CubeSat, about the size of a toaster oven, was developed at Montana State University.
A CubeSat named DhabiSat was developed by students at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. Students developed the CubeSat with help from Yahsat, a communications satellite company in Abu Dhabi, and Northrop Grumman.
Paraguay’s first satellite, a CubeSat known as GuaraniSat 1, also launched Saturday. Paraguay’s space agency says the CubeSat was developed in partnership with engineers in Japan and universities and research centers in Paraguay.
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket boosted a Cygnus cargo ship into orbit Saturday after a picture-perfect launch from Virginia’s Eastern Shore, carrying more than 8,000 pounds of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station.
The rocket’s two Russian-built RD-181 first stage engines ignited at 12:36 p.m., throttled up to full thrust and pushed the booster skyward from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport – MARS – at NASA’s Wallops Island, Virginia, flight facility.
Climbing directly into the plane of the space station’s orbit, the Antares 230+ rocket streaked away on a southeasterly trajectory to kick off the company’s 15th space station cargo run.
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket blasts off from Wallops Island, Virginia, on a flight to deliver more than 8,000 pounds of equipment, science gear and crew supplies to the International Space Station.
NASA TV
The climb out of the lower atmosphere went smoothly and after a two-minute 45-second firing of the rocket’s solid-propellant second stage, the Cygnus cargo ship was released to fly on its own, on course to catch up with the station early Monday.
Along with research materials, spare parts and other equipment, the spacecraft also will bring fresh food to the station’s crew members.
“Some of the things that we’re sending up will include perishable items like parmesan and cheddar cheese, apples and tomatoes, nuts and dried meats and even a little bit of candy,” said David Brady, space station associate program scientist.
Also on board: maple smoked sockeye salmon “for those crew members that love fish.”
“We like to keep them happy because (it) helps them be more productive and allows us to do more science,” Brady quipped.
The primary goal of the Cygnus mission is to deliver science equipment and supplies for on-going research utilizing the microgravity environment aboard the space station.
One experiment will use small worms to learn more about how astronauts’ muscles lose strength in the absence of gravity while another explores better ways to make retinal implants that could help people with degenerative vision disorders retain or improve their eyesight.
An advanced computer capable of faster processing and data compression will be tested and equipment to upgrade the station’s urine recycling system will be installed. Also on board: new radiation detectors that will be used on future missions to the moon and beyond.
A few minutes before launch, the International Space Station flew directly over NASA’s Wallops Island, Virginia, launch facility where the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo ship were awaiting liftoff. The launch site is on the coast of Virginia’s Eastern Shore just to the left of the lab’s robot arm (visible at the right of this image).
Soichi Noguchi/NASA
“ISS research is in full bloom right now,” said program scientist Heidi Parris. “There are hundreds of different experiments going on simultaneously on the International Space Station, and it’s putting into motion the work of some of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world.”
The research, she said, is “attempting to make our daily lives better on Earth, and also to continue to expand our abilities for future space exploration.”
If all goes well, the Cygnus spacecraft will reach the station early Monday. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and crewmate Mike Hopkins will capture the cargo ship using the lab’s robot arm. Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston then will take over by remote control to pull the ship in for berthing.
“This vehicle is carrying over 8,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station,” said Joel Montalbano, manager of the station program in Houston. “We’ve been talking to the crew onboard (and) they’re eagerly awaiting the Cygnus arrival, and look forward to opening the hatch and getting inside and continuing the science and research program we have scheduled.”
Northrop Grumman names its Cygnus cargo ships after notable men and women who played critical roles in America’s space program. For Saturday’s flight, the spacecraft was named in honor of Katherine Johnson, the late mathematician whose role in the early years of the space program played a central role in the movie “Hidden Figures.”
“It’s our tradition to name each Cygnus after an individual who’s played a pivotal role in human spaceflight,” said Frank DeMauro, Northrop Grumman vice president and general manager. “Mrs. Johnson was selected for her handwritten calculations that helped launch the first Americans into space, as well as her accomplishments in breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling as a Black woman.
“She is an inspiration to so many people, especially women of color, and proved time and time again that racial barriers and glass ceilings are breakable and shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — A Northrop Grumman-built Cygnus cargo ship lifted off from Virginia on Saturday (Feb. 20), carrying vital supplies for astronauts on the International Space Station.
Perched atop a two-stage Antares rocket, the uncrewed Cygnus NG-15 spacecraft blasted off from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility here at 12:36 p.m. EDT (1736 GMT).
The craft is hauling more than 8,200 lbs. (3,719 kilograms) of cargo that include scientific equipment, fresh food and supplies for the seven astronauts on board the space station. It’s also packed with new hardware and spacewalk equipment.
The 139-foot-tall (42.5-meter) Antares rocket lifted off right on time, at the beginning of a planned 5-minute window. It’s Cygnus NG-15 cargo ship is named after Katherine Johnson, the trailblazing NASA mathematician who helped make John Glenn’s historic orbital flight — the first by an American astronaut — possible. Now, 59 years later, the S.S. Katherine Johnson embarks on her own flight to space on the 59th anniversary of Glenn’s Friendship 7 Mercury flight.
Video: Watch the Antares rocket launch of Cygnus NG-15! Related: Private Antares rocket & Cygnus explained (infographic)
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A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying the uncrewed Cygnus NG-15 cargo ship launches from Pad 0A of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia on Feb. 20, 2021. (Image credit: NASA TV)
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The Cygnus NG-15 cargo ship is carrying 8,200 lbs. (3,719 kilograms) of supplies to the International Space Station for NASA. (Image credit: NASA TV)
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It will take about two days for the Cygnus NG-15 cargo ship to reach the space station. (Image credit: NASA TV)
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The Cygnus NG-15 cargo ship will arrive at the International Space Station on Monday, Feb. 22, at 4:40 a.m. EST (0940 GMT). (Image credit: NASA TV)
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The NG-15 mission is Northrop Grumman’s 15th operational resupply launch to the space station since 2014 and marked the 4th Antares to fly in the 230+ configuration.
The rocket’s first stage is powered by two Russian-made RD-181 engines fueled by rocket-grade kerosene, producing 864,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff. The first stage separated from the rocket’s upper stage just over three minutes into flight.
Shortly after, the payload fairing jettisoned, leaving the Cygnus exposed to space. Powered by a solid-fueled upper stage, the Cygnus was deposited in its preliminary orbit and ready to begin its journey to the space station. The cargo craft will spend two days chasing down the orbital outpost before berthing to the station with the help of a robotic arm.
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will capture the vessel on Monday (Feb. 22) at about 4:40 a.m. EST (0940 GMT), with NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins serving as backup. The craft will remain at the station for approximately three months, after which it will detach itself and burn up upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Hidden figures
Northrop Grumman makes both the Antares rocket and the Cygnus spacecraft. The company has a tradition of naming its spacecraft after fallen heroes who have made a significant contribution to human spaceflight.
In this case, the company is choosing to honor the late Katherine Johnson, who died at the age of 101 nearly a year ago on Feb. 24, 2020. Johnson worked as a human computer whose trajectory calculations were critical to NASA’s early success with human spaceflight, in particular Glenn’s orbital flight.
“It’s our tradition to name each Cygnus after an individual who’s played a pivotal role in human spaceflight, and Mrs. Johnson was selected for her hand-written calculations that helped launch the first Americans into space, as well as her accomplishments in breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling as a Black woman,” said Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager for tactical space at Northrop Grumman said on Friday (Feb. 19).
Years after her retirement, Johnson’s work was highlighted in the book “Hidden Figures,” and later the movie of the same name starring Taraji P. Hensen as Johnson. Johnson received a congressional medal of freedom and the congressional gold medal from President Barack Obama for her work at NASA.
Related: NASA facility dedicated to mathematician Katherine Johnson
Mathematician Katherine Johnson at work at NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1980. (Image credit: Bob Nye/NASA)
Special delivery
Tucked inside the Cygnus is a bevy of time-sensitive cargo items, including a supply of fresh food for the astronauts on the space station. During a prelaunch briefing on Friday, NASA officials said they were sending up some treats for the crew members of Expedition 64, including salmon, hard salami, parmesan cheese, caramel hard candies and other perishable items.
“We want to keep the crew happy, because a happy crew is a productive crew for science,” David Brady, associate program scientist for the International Space Station, said prior to launch.
Also inside the Cygnus is a brine processor assembly for the space station’s water recycling system, which converts urine into fresh drinking water. NASA says the new processor will enable more water to be recovered from urine than with the current equipment on station. The agency says this is a key piece of hardware to help meet the requirements for future long-duration missions to the moon and eventually Mars.
“Long-duration crewed exploration missions require about 98% water recovery, and there is currently no state-of- the-art technology in brine processing that can help achieve this goal,” NASA officials wrote in a fact sheet. “This brine processor system plans to close this gap for the urine waste stream of the space station.”
The equipment works by using special membranes to separate contaminants from the brine, allowing water vapor to flow into the cabin atmosphere, where a condenser will capture it and filter it into the station’s water system.
Also onboard the Cygnus will be a new sleeping pod for the Expedition 64 crew. Currently there are five astronauts in the U.S. segment — four Crew-1 astronauts who launched in November on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and Kate Rubins who flew on a Soyuz last October — with only four sleep stations. Hopkins, the Crew Dragon commander, has been sleeping in the capsule since launching in November. Three Russian cosmonauts round out the station’s crew.
Cygnus also is ferrying spare parts and equipment for the space station’s toilets, and equipment for upcoming spacewalks.
Weird science
Northrop Grumman’s NG-15 Cygnus cargo ship seen during launch preparations. (Image credit: Northrop Grumman)
The bevy of research experiments brought up on the NG-15 mission will researchers to better understand how microgravity affects the human body as well as manufacturing processes. One investigation will look at the construction of protein-based artificial retinas on station.
Designed by LambdaVision, the experiment will use a layer-by-layer process to manufacture artificial retinas in space. The hope is that the “retina” can then be implanted into the eye of a patient suffering from degenerative retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration.
One high-tech experiment aboard is the Spaceborne Computer-2, a collaboration by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Microsoft to bring cloud computing and artificial intelligence technology to the International Space Station. Microsoft will link its Azure Space Platform to the computer to “deliver edge computing and [artificial intelligence] capabilities” to the station, according to HPE.
Another experiment will measure muscle strength in multiple generations of worms, to better understand the biological changes that happen during spaceflight. Led by Siva Vanapalli, the experiment will look at how the muscle strength in worms changes overtime during spaceflight.
About 1,000 worm larvae are en route to the space station, tucked inside the Cygnus as part of the Micro-16 investigation. Once on station, the worms will produce many offspring during their trip, allowing researchers to look at multiple generations. They’re also sending a device called NemaFlex, which is designed to measure how much force the worms exert.
Vanapalli is hoping that the device will enable the team to measure changes in the worm’s strength which can be beneficial to drug development as well as help researchers improve astronaut health.
Also on board the Cygnus are several student experiments including the Magnitude.io experiment that will help engage students in STEM projects with the help of bitmoji stickers. The experiment, called ExoLab 8, is Magnitude.io’s eighth investigation sent to the space station.
Mission participants (which will include students from Kindergarten through college level) will attempt to grow red clover plants at home and in their classrooms to act as a ground control experiment, and compare growth rates to similar plants grown in space.
Online activities will be led by an Astro_moji teacher — Linwood Elementary Technology teacher, Lisa Turney. Her likeness will be turned into a bitmoji who will teach students from space via her bitmoji avatar. The experiment will rely on a SpaceTango CubeLab that will facilitate plant growth.
“We are taking distance learning to a whole new level: 250 miles above the Earth to an orbital classroom,” Magnitude.io CEO Ted Tagami wrote in a news release. “While the pandemic disrupted many learning experiences, our mission participants will remember 2021 as the year they went to space.”
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
A new Russian Progress cargo ship launched into orbit Sunday night (Feb. 14) to deliver cargo to the seven crew members on the International Space Station.
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos launched the Progress MS-16 cargo ship, also called Progress 77, on a Soyuz rocket from Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:45 p.m. EST (0445 GMT on Feb. 15, 10:45:06 a.m. Baikonur time). It will arrive at the station on Tuesday.
Progress 77 is carrying approximately 5,424 lbs. (2,460 kg) of cargo and supplies for the crew currently on board the station. That includes 3,086 lbs.(1,400 kg) of research and crew supplies (like food and clothing), along with a supply of fresh water, nitrogen gas and propellant for the station’s Zvezda service module propulsion system.
Video: Watch Russia’s Progress 77 cargo ship blast off Related: How Russia’s Progress Cargo Ships Work (Infographic)
A Russian Soyuz rocket launches the uncrewed Progress 77 cargo ship toward the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on Feb. 15, 2021 local time (Feb. 14 EST). (Image credit: NASA TV)
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Tucked inside the payload fairing of its Soyuz 2.1a launcher, the Progress MS-16 spacecraft rolled to the launch pad on Friday (Feb. 12), ahead of its planned Sunday launch. This way ground crews could finish their final flight preparations.
The Soyuz is a 152-foot-tall (46-meters) three-stage launch vehicle. It was expected to head on a northeasterly trajectory after launch, jettisoning its four strap-on boosters approximately two minutes after liftoff. The rocket’s second stage, (also called the core stage) is powered by one RD-108A engine designed to continue firing for approximately three more minutes before handing the reins over to the rocket’s third stage — an RD-0110 engine.
Once the rocket reached a certain altitude, the fairings fell away to expose the Progress MS-16 spacecraft, which separated from the booster’s upper stage nine minutes into the flight to make its way to the space station.
After separation, the Progress spacecraft should unfurl its solar arrays and navigation antennas. It will then align itself with the space station and prepare for docking with the Russian-built Pirs module Tuesday (Feb. 16) at 1:20 a.m. EST (0620 GMT).
The Pirs module is a docking port on the Zvezda service module that doubles as an airlock for station crewmembers to use when conducting Russian-led spacewalks. Pirs is scheduled to be removed when the Progress 77 spacecraft ends its mission in July.
In its place, Roscosmos will bring up a long-awaited new addition: the Nauka laboratory. This will mark the largest addition to the Russian segment of the space station since the Zvezda module was installed in 2000. (There is another, similar port to Pirs, called Poisk, that will remain on station.)
Related: The International Space Station is now home to the world’s 1st commercial airlock
A sliver of the Earth can be seen in the top right in this camera view from Progress 77 captured shortly after launch. One if its solar arrays is visible at left after unfolding. (Image credit: NASA TV)
The Progress spacecraft is an uncrewed freighter that looks very similar to its crew-toting counterpart, the Soyuz spacecraft, which is used to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. The main difference is that Progress is used to fly cargo and is also designed to burn up as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, whereas Soyuz will land back on land.
Because Progress vehicles are disposable, they’re typically loaded with trash and other items to be discarded before setting off on a course to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, typically over a remote region of the Pacific Ocean.
Progress 77 is the first of two planned cargo deliveries to the space station within a week. On Saturday (Feb. 20), a U.S.-built Cygnus spacecraft is slated to launch from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on its own two-day trip to the space station.
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Experiments with worms and artificial retinas will ship to space Feb. 20 aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, according to a NASA announcement.
The cargo ship is scheduled to lift off no earlier than 12:36 p.m. EST (1736 GMT) from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, if all goes to plan. Only a limited number of U.S. media may go on site due to quarantine protocols associated with the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Cygnus will launch to the International Space Station aboard an Antares rocket and arrive at the orbiting lab two days later, according to NASA.
Some of the research investigations on board Cygnus include an experiment to study muscle strength in worms, an experiment concerning how microgravity may assist with artificial retina production, and the SpaceBorne Computer-2 experiment from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
SpaceBorne Computer-2 “aims to demonstrate that current Earth-based data processing of space station experimental data can be performed in orbit,” NASA said in the same statement. In general, processing data in space may reduce the amount of data sent to the ground, freeing communications channels for other tasks.
Cargo ships also carry essential items for spaceflyers including fresh food, equipment replacements or other items the crews may need to live in space for months at a time. After a few months, the crew fills departing Cygnus cargo ships with trash, which will burn up when the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere.
When the last Cygnus spacecraft left the space station in January, it carried a high-speed 5G communications experiment along with the latest iteration in a series of science experiments investigating the behavior of fire in space, called Saffire-V. NASA plans to use these fire studies to improve astronaut safety on future missions, especially those in deep space.
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SpaceX completed a historic cargo launch of 143 satellites into orbit, the agency announced.
The company delivered 133 commercial and government spacecraft along with 10 Starlink satellites as part of its rideshare mission, making it the single largest deployment in a single mission.
The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Sunday morning, marking the fifth mission the Transporter-1 booster has been used, according to Space.com.
The launch had been delayed from Saturday due to poor weather conditions.
The Transporter-1 booster has previously been used to launch a communications satellite for South Korea’s military, a number of other Starlink satellites and a Dragon cargo capsule for a space station resupply mission.
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Following the launch, the Falcon 9 then deployed the satellites over a dozen waves across a 90-minute window following lift-off, Ars Technica reported.
The Transporter-1 returned to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The drone ship was named “Of Course I Still Love You” after a ship from the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, as are all of SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport drone ships.
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SpaceX claimed that this was the first deployment of a constellation – a term for a group of satellites – in a polar orbit.
