Two Re-entries: One Good, One Bad.

A Cygnus resupply vehicle grappled with the ISS robotic CanadArm.

 

There have been two fiery re-entries in the ISS program lately. One went well, the other did not. On November 27, the Cygnus OA-5 cargo spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere and burned up (along with a lot of space station trash) over the Pacific Ocean. On its way out, it performed some vital services. After undocking from the ISS to make room for future cargo deliveries, the Cygnus performed a test of the fire system aboard the spacecraft, with the goal to observe how fires behave in a zero0G environment. After the succesfull test, ground engineers operated the ship to a new high altitude Cygnus record of 500 kilometers, and then launched a series of four LEMUR cubesats. Two days llater the engineers guided Cygnus to its end.

Fiery breakup of an earlier Cygnus mission.

 

Night launch of a Progress supply mission.

 

Things did NOT go as planned for a Russian resupply mission to the ISS station. On Thursday December 3, Progress MS-04 blasted off from Baikonur with supplies for the astronauts in ISS. It was the 4th use of the revamped Progress series of robotic cargo ships. As engineers are still verifyiing safety tests with the new Progress and Soyuz variations, the plan was to continue using the 2-day orbital approach technique to the station rendezvous. Something went wrong during the third stage separation. Observers noted the fiery re-entry and crash over southern Russia. This marks the 3rd Progress failure in 65 launches.