The International Space Station is a partnership that relies heavily on the Russians to keep it in the proper orbit, but Northrop Grumman just completed a test fire of its cargo spacecraft Cygnus that could offer an alternative.
NASA and Northrop Grumman performed a limited reboost maneuver on Saturday that lasted 5 minutes and 1 second that was able to raise the space station’s altitude.
The goal is to make Cygnus repositioning fires a standard service for the craft that is designed primarily to transport cargo on resupply missions to the station. Most repositioning duties fall to the Russians Progress modules, but NASA has been working on alternatives in case Russia ends its support of the station past 2024. Cygnus was able to first test the maneuver back in 2018.
NASA is seeking to keep the ISS up and running through 2030. It orbits at around 250 miles altitude by requires occasional reboosts to maintain its position.
The module has been docked to the station since February and is slated to depart Tuesday, after which it will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The module has shared a commercial resupply contract with SpaceX, which flies up its Dragons. While the Dragon can return to Earth, it does not currently have the ability to correct the station’s position through engine burns as Cygnus has now done.
“This reboost of the ISS using Cygnus adds a critical capability to help maintain and support the space station,” said Steve Krein, a Northrop Grumman vice president over civil and commercial space and tactical space systems “It also demonstrates the enormous capability Cygnus offers the ISS and future space exploration efforts.”
The module first began flying to the ISS in 2013 when it was part of Orbital ATK, which was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2018. It has since carried more than 112,000 pounds of cargo to the station. The company looks to use the spacecraft in other space endeavors including on NASA’s lunar outpost Gateway and its own commercial space station.
