After being attached to the International Space Station (ISS) for over three weeks (grappled and berthed on 14 November), it was time for the disposable Cygnus OA-8 (Gene Cernan) cargo spacecraft to leave. Cygnus OA-8 was unberthed from the Unity module at 1752 GMT on 05/12/2017 before conducting a series of maneouvres controlled by the Canadarm to verify future crew vehicles will be able to have reliable communications as they approach the Harmony module of the ISS. It was released from the ISS by the Canadian-built robotic arm at 1311 GMT on 6 December 2017. On board, still attached to Cygnus OA-8, in Nanoracks-supplied NRCSD-E dispensers on the outside of the spacecraft were 14 nanosat sized spacecraft. These were released in a series of three ejections.
Set of two Lemur-2 nanosats are released in a “torpedo like” ejection from its dispenser attached to the Cygnus OA-8 freighter. Courtesy: Orbital ATK via Jonathan McDowell
First of these occurred at 1924 GMT on 6 December when seven spacecraft, two Lemur-2 ship tracking and weather spacecraft (Lemur-2 YongLin and Lemur-2 Kevin) along with the technology test spacecraft CHEFSat and Aerocubes 7B and 7C, were released into orbit by NRCSD-E dispenser on side of Cygnus OA-8.
This release was followed by a second batch, this time of five spacecraft, at 2240 on 6 December : The ISARA technology test craft, along with two more Lemur-2s (Lemur-2 BrianDavie and Lemur-2 RomaCoste), as well as the Asgardia 1 and Propcube-2 Fauna technology test spacecraft.
A final release of four Lemur 2 spacecraft from the Cygnus OA-8 mounted NRCSD-E dispenser (Lemur-2 RocketJohah, Lemur-2 Liu-Poh-Chun, Lemur-2 McCullagh and Lemour-2 Dunlop) occurred at 0200 GMT on 7 December 2017. (All times from Jonathan McDowell).
