T – 9 Days: Preparation continues for the March 19th launch of the Orbital ATK Cygnus OA-7, the S.S. John Glenn from SLC-41.
Yesterday (March 8th) saw the encapsulation of the Cygnus craft within a 4-meter payload fairing at the Payload Hazardous Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, before it’s placement on top of a ULA Atlas V 401.
As is tradition with Cygnus missions, the spacecraft is named in honor of a deceased Astronaut. John H. Glenn Jr. was one of the United States’ first Astronauts, the Mercury 7, and the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20th, 1962 aboard his capsule Friendship 7. Glenn would become a Senator for Ohio in 1974, serving until 1999. In 1998, he would return to space aboard OV-103 Discovery for STS-95, becoming the oldest person to visit space, and the only Mercury 7 Astronaut to fly a shuttle mission. Glenn passed away December 8th, 2016 at the age of 95
For this mission, the Cygnus spacecraft will be carrying 7,600 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station. Experiments include SAFFIRE-3 from the Glenn Research Center to study flame development in space, as well as the flight data recorder, RED-Data-2 which will record the intense conditions the spacecraft will experience on re-entry.
OA-7 is the seventh flight of Cygnus as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, and is the 4th flight of the Enhanced Cygnus, featuring a stretched Pressurized Cargo Module allowing for a larger cargo-carrying capacity. This is also the 3rd flight of Cygnus aboard an Atlas rocket.
The 30 minute launch window for OA-7 opens at 10:56 pm EDT on Sunday, March 19th.
This post was written by FAM correspondent and host of Historical Spaceflight Michael Strittmatter
