The Cygnus spacecraft has completed two delta velocity burns, and it remains on track for a capture by the space station’s robotic arm slated for 3:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The spacecraft is in a safe trajectory, and all other systems are operating normally.
Shortly after launch on Sunday, the spacecraft performed as designed by cancelling a scheduled engine burn due to a slightly low initial pressure reading flagged by the Cygnus onboard detection system. Engineers at Northrop Grumman’s mission control center in Dulles, Virginia evaluated the pressure reading, confirmed it was acceptable and re-worked the burn plan to arrive at the space station on the originally planned schedule.
I was wondering how the capsule was doing. After 20 missions, I guess they know what they’re doing.
I don’t remember if Northrop Grumman submitted a commercial crew proposal. Like SpaceX, they would have benefited from their supply mission experience.
What a rabbit hole…
The main CCDev2 contracts went to SpaceX for Crew Dragon, Blue Origin for a capsule that didn’t happen, Sierra Nevada for Dreamchaser, and, a name which will live in infamy, Boeing Starliner.
ATK (makers of Cygnus, now owned by NG) bid the Liberty rocket for crew rating, and later proposed the Liberty crew capsule, like a Diet Orion. They didn’t get funded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_(rocket)
Wow, it would have been the bastard child of Ares I and Ariane 5, with a miniature Orion on the tip? Definitely one of the more Kerbal proposals…
Yikes, does that say a single stick solid booster for the first stage? Seems like it’d be a rough ride up.