Feb 3 2017

From The Space Library

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Current revision

MEDIA ADVISORY M17-013 NASA Opens Media Accreditation for Next Orbital ATK Cargo Resupply Mission

NASA has opened media accreditation for the next Orbital ATK launch of a commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Cygnus spacecraft is targeted to launch March 19, during a 30-minute window that opens at approximately 10:56 p.m. EDT.

Cygnus will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. The spacecraft will carry crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory to support the Expedition 50 and 51 crews.

Media prelaunch and launch activities will take place at CCAFS and NASA’s nearby Kennedy Space Center.

International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, for access to Cape Canaveral and Kennedy. International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 4:30 p.m. on Monday, March 6, for access to Kennedy. U.S. media must apply by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 9.

All media accreditation requests should be submitted online.

International media are required to upload a scanned copy of their media visa and passport or green card with their accreditation requests. Media must present two forms of unexpired, government identification to enter Kennedy. One form must include a photo, such as a passport or driver’s license.

Questions about accreditation may be addressed to Jennifer Horner at jennifer.p.horner@nasa.gov or 321-867-6598. For other questions, or additional information, contact Kennedy’s newsroom at 321-867-2468.

Investigations scheduled on this launch include an Advanced Plant Habitat, which will integrate new technology to increase overall efficiency, reliability, and robustness of plants grown on station. This experiment will build on the success of NASA’s Veggie, the first fresh food growth system on station, and will provide ongoing research for the development of food production systems for long-duration exploration missions.

Manipulating cell cultures in space is challenging as the cells can spontaneously grow in 3-D. Another new investigation bound for the U.S. National Laboratory will look at using magnetized cells and tools to make it easier to handle cells and cultures, and improve the reproducibility of experiments.

The Slosh Coating experiment will investigate a special type of coating that can repel liquids when applied to container walls. If effective, the liquid repellent could be used to design more efficient storage tanks for propellant and other fluids used in space exploration.

There also will be a number of CubeSats onboard Cygnus that will be deployed from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployment on the space station, including a NASA science payload known as IceCube, which will provide data to scientists’ understanding of ice clouds and their role in climate change.

The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has been occupied continuously since November 2000. In that time, more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft have visited the orbiting laboratory. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.

The NASA TV schedule and video streaming information is available online. Visit the agency’s website for more information about the mission including launch countdown coverage and NASA's launch blog.

MEDIA ADVISORY M17-017 NASA Highlights Science Launching on Next SpaceX Cargo Mission

NASA will host a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 8, to discuss research investigations launching aboard the next SpaceX commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station. Among the investigations are experiments with potential to fight human disease and a new autonomous spacecraft docking technology for testing.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is targeted to launch no earlier than mid-February, on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This will be the first mission from the historic launch pad since SpaceX began to modernize the pad’s structures in preparation to fly astronauts on NASA missions for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

To participate in the science preview teleconference, reporters must contact Tabatha Thompson at 202-358-1100 or tabatha.t.thompson@nasa.gov by 1 p.m. Wednesday for dial-in information.

The briefing participants will include:

• Danielle Gibson and Will Castro, students at Craft Academy at Morehead State University, to explain their experiment to use and evaluate smooth muscle cells to test theories about muscle contraction in the absence of gravity;
• Paul Reichart, associate principal scientist at Merck Research Laboratories, who will discuss a Merck investigation that tests growth in microgravity of antibodies important for fighting a wide range of human diseases;
• Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, to brief two Earth science payloads: NASA’s Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment III mission and Lightning Imaging Sensor, which will provide continuity for key climate observations and data records;
• Ben Reed, deputy division director of the Satellite Servicing Projects Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, to discuss Raven, a technology demonstration to test autonomous rendezvous capability on the International Space Station; and
• Dr. Anita Goel, chairman and scientific director for Nanobiosym, to discuss an experiment to provide data valuable for antibiotic drug development.

The uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft will carry crew supplies, scientific research and hardware to the orbital laboratory to support the Expedition 50 and 51 crew members. This launch is the tenth contracted mission by SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.