Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo spacecraft, with the
moon seen in the background, is moved into installation position by astronauts
using a robotic arm aboard the International Space Station Jan. 12. The
spacecraft is loaded with 2,700 lbs of vital science experiments, crew
provisions, spare parts and other hardware. Cygnus will remain attached to
Harmony until a planned unberthing in February sends the spacecraft toward a
destructive re-entry in Earth's atmosphere.
Image Credit: NASA
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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station Sunday used a robotic arm
to capture and attach the Cygnus supply spacecraft, which carried dozens of new
science experiments from across the country and the world to the orbiting
laboratory. The arrival capped the first successful contracted cargo delivery by
Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., for NASA.
Astronaut Mike Hopkins of NASA grappled the spacecraft at 6:08 a.m. EST and
Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency attached Cygnus to the
space station's Harmony Node at 8:05 a.m. The Expedition 38 crew members aboard
the station will begin unloading the 2,780 pounds (1,261 kilograms) of supplies
aboard Cygnus following hatch opening planned for Monday.
The cargo is comprised of vital science experiments, crew provisions, spare
parts and other hardware. This includes 23 student-designed science experiments.
One newly arrived investigation will study the decreased effectiveness of
antibiotics during spaceflight. Another will examine how different fuel samples
burn in microgravity, which could inform future design for spacecraft
materials.
Orbital's Cygnus was launched on the company's Antares rocket Thursday from
the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in
Virginia. Cygnus will remain attached to Harmony until a planned unberthing in
February sends the spacecraft toward a destructive re-entry in Earth's
atmosphere.
Orbital Sciences is one of two companies that built and tested new cargo
spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)
program. COTS was completed late last year with an Orbital Sciences
demonstration mission to the space station. Space Exploration Technologies
(SpaceX), the other company that partnered with NASA under COTS, also is
providing commercial resupply services for the agency. U.S. commercial cargo
delivery flights to the station help ensure a robust national capability to
deliver critical science research to orbit, significantly increasing NASA's
ability to conduct new science investigations aboard the only laboratory in
microgravity.
In addition to cargo flights, NASA's commercial space partners are making
progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil within the next three
years.
The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and
human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research
breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has been continuously
occupied since November 2000. In that time, it has been visited by more than 200
people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space
station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration,
including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.
For more information about newly arrived science investigations aboard the
Cygnus, visit:
For more information about Orbital's cargo mission and the International
Space Station, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
