Fire-in-space experiment planned on Cygnus supply ship

Final preparations are underway to launch a resupply mission to the International Space Station on March 22. But one of the key experiments aboard the mission won't be carried out until the Cygnus spacecraft leaves the space station.

That's when an unprecedented experiment with fire, called Saffire-I, will take place aboard the empty Cygnus resupply vehicle.

NASA's Saffire experiment — it stands for Spacecraft Fire Experiment — involves igniting "a relatively large-scale fire" in a zero-gravity environment, says Dan Tani, senior director of mission and cargo operations for Orbital ATK.

"It's a big deal," said Tani, a former astronaut who flew two space shuttle missions, the second involving spending 120 days aboard the International Space Station.

Tani and other officials on Tuesday briefed the media on the Orbital ATK Cygnus OA-6 mission at NASA's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, where the Cygnus spacecraft was being filled with cargo in advance of the launch.

Si Song, spacecraft integration lead for United Launch Alliance, which is launching Cygnus on an Atlas V rocket, said Saffire is "a very exciting experiment that has never been done before. I think that's a great experiment."

SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off on successful SES-9 mission from Cape Canaveral

By using an expendable supply vehicle like Cygnus, NASA is able to perform the experiment without damaging a reusable vehicle or endangering astronauts.

NASA says the Saffire-I experiment provides a new way to study a realistic fire. Instruments on Cygnus will measure oxygen, carbon dioxide, heat, pressure and flame growth, and two video cameras will provide views of the flame. The material that will be ignited is about 37 inches tall and 16 inches wide.

"The investigation is crucial for the safety of current and future space missions," NASA said in its summary of the experiment, whose main objective is "improving understanding of fire growth in microgravity and improving future space missions."

NASA said, while the focus is on spacecraft fire safety, the experiment also will have applications on Earth.

"Studying fire in small, sealed environments, such as the Cygnus cargo supply vehicle, benefits fire safety and prevention efforts on Earth, including inside mines, airplanes or submarines," NASA said.

Cygnus burns up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, and the Saffire experiment hardware burns up with it.

Schedule of upcoming Florida rocket launches

But the data and video from the experiment will be transmitted to Earth before then.

NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland developed the Saffire experiment. Variations of the experiment also will be conducted on two subsequent flights of the Cygnus vehicle.

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByDaveBerman and on Facebook at facebook.com/dave.berman.54

Launch information

The fifth commercial resupply mission for Orbital ATK is targeted for liftoff on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 11:05 p.m. March 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.