GENERAL OVERVIEW
After the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA decided to open to private companies the cargo trasportation service from Earth to the International Space Station (ISS). To encourage this activity, NASA established the Commercial Cargo Transportation program (CTT), fulfilled in two steps: – Commercial Orbital Transportation Service (COTS), with the objective of developing the new cargo modules and demonstrating the capabilities of resupply for ISS. – Commercial Resupply Service (CRS), with the objective of procuring the cargo flights to support the ISS.
THE PROJECT
Orbital- ATK (formerly Orbital Science Corporation) was awarded to provide to NASA 9 modules in a 5 years period: the Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) “Cygnus” was subcontracted to Thales Alenai Space Italia, already experienced in ISS astronauts habitative modules.
Orbital- ATK (formerly Orbital Science Corporation) was awarded to provide to NASA 9 modules in a 5 years period: the Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) “Cygnus” was subcontracted to Thales Alenai Space Italia, already experienced in ISS astronauts habitative modules.
WHY TEKSPAN
TAS-I, as prime contractor of Orbital ATK in the CRS project, decided to use ZOTEK F30 to fill all the gaps inside the cargo module, due to its lightness, durability, purity and chemical inertia and also for the NASA approval for ISS use. Tekspan converted the foam blocks into 3d complex shapes in order to give to the load compartment a regular geometry instead of a rounded one, for a better space optimization. Tekspan has been proud to supply the foam elements for all the nine modules of CRS1.