Cygnus CRS OA 4

Updated on Nov 26, 2023

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Mission type ISS resupply COSPAR ID 2015-072A Mission duration Final: 76 days		Operator Orbital ATK SATCAT no. 41101 Spacecraft Cygnus 5

Cygnus CRS OA-4, also known as Orbital Sciences CRS Flight 4 was the fourth successful flight of the Orbital ATK uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its third flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. With the Antares rocket undergoing a redesign following its failure during the Orb-3 launch, OA-4 was launched by an Atlas V rocket. Following three launch delays due to inclement weather beginning on 3 December 2015, OA-4 was launched at 21:44 UTC on 6 December 2015. With a liftoff weight of 7,492 kilograms (16,517 lb), OA-4 became the heaviest payload ever launched on an Atlas V. The spacecraft rendezvoused with and was berthed to the ISS on 9 December 2015. It was released on 19 February 2016 after 72 days at the station. Deorbit occurred on 20 February at approximately 16:00 UTC.

Spacecraft

OA-4 was the fourth of eight flights by Orbital ATK under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA and the inaugural flight of the larger Enhanced Cygnus PCM. The mission was originally scheduled for 1 April 2015. The Atlas 5 rocket launched in the 401 vehicle configuration with a four-meter fairing, no solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.

In an Orbital Sciences tradition, this Cygnus spacecraft was named Deke Slayton II after one of NASA's original Mercury Seven astronauts and Director of Flight Operations, who died in 1993. This spacecraft reuses the name Deke Slayton, originally applied to the Orb-3 spacecraft which was lost in an Antares rocket explosion in October 2014.

Manifest

The mission was the first flight of the enhanced variant of Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft, capable of delivering more than 7,700 pounds of essential crew supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to the station.

Total cargo: 3,349 kg (7,383 lb)

Crew supplies: 1,181 kg (2,604 lb)

Crew care packages

Crew provisions

Food

Vehicle Hardware: 1,007 kg (2,220 lb)

Crew health care system hardware

Environment control and life-support equipment

Electrical power system hardware

Extravehicular robotics equipment

Flight crew equipment

PL facility

Structural & mechanical equipment

Internal thermal control system hardware

Science Investigations: 847 kg (1,867 lb)

A new life science facility called the Space Automated Bio Lab (SABL) that will support studies on cell cultures, bacteria, and other micro-organisms;

A microsatellite deployer and the second microsatellite to be deployed from the space station;

The NASA LONESTAR experimental payload consisting of the AggieSat4 and Bevo-2 satellites

The AggieSat4 satellite, built by engineering students at Texas A&M University, deploys the smaller Bevo-2 CubeSat stored inside of it;

The Bevo-2 CubeSat, designed and built by engineering and computer science students at the University of Texas at Austin;

Experiments that will study the behavior of gases and liquids and clarify the thermo-physical properties of molten steel; and

Evaluations of flame-resistant textiles.

Computer Resources: 87 kg (192 lb)

Command and data handling

Photo and TV equipment

Spacewalk Equipment: 227 kg (500 lb)

A new SAFER jetpack

Extravehicular Mobility Unit parts, including legs, gloves, tethers, and batteries

Airlock cooling loop parts

Total cargo with packing material: 3,513 kg (7,745 lb)

References

Cygnus CRS OA-4 Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

Spacecraft

Manifest

References