A robotic cargo ship lifted off from the space station on Friday (December 22) on its way to a planned destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere in early 2024.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus NG-19 unmanned spacecraft has departed International Space Station (International Space Station) at 8:06 a.m. EDT (1306 GMT) on Friday. NASA official Rebecca Turkington said in a live broadcast on NASA TV that the Canadarm2 robotic arm launched the spacecraft over the North Atlantic Ocean just one minute later than expected.
“This was a beautiful release from here,” NASA Expedition 70 astronaut Loral O’Hara said on the live broadcast, about 10 minutes after the release. “Congratulations to everyone who supported this mission on Earth,” added the International Space Station’s O’Hara. “We still have a good view of Cygnus. It’s beautiful.”
Cygnus spent 4.5 months in the orbital complex, after arriving on August 4 which carried 8,200 pounds (3,800 kg) of instrumentation, supplies, science, commercial products, and other cargo. NASA Officials said Wednesday (December 20) release..
Related: The Cygnus cargo ship arrives at the space station with 8,200 pounds of cargo on board
NG-19, Northrop Grumman’s 19th commercial resupply mission, launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility In Virginia on August 1st. It is named after Laurel Clark, a NASA astronaut who died (along with six other astronauts) during the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. NG-19 was also the last mission launched on a version of Northrop Grumman’s spacecraft. The Antares rocket that used the first stage was manufactured in Ukraine.
The spacecraft was docked on the US Unity module of the International Space Station. Land-Facing port. To separate it, flight controllers on the ground instructed the automated Canadarm2 to perform the procedure, then moved the cargo ship to release. NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara “will monitor Cygnus systems as they depart the space station,” NASA officials wrote in the statement before the maneuver took place.
The exact date of Cygnus’s return to Earth has not been announced. The spacecraft will operate undetected “Secondary Payload Operations” Before ordering in early January to take the plunge Earth’s atmosphereWhere it will burn with the garbage on board.
On NASA TV, Turkington confirmed that Cygnus has the green light to conduct a new SAFFIRE firing experiment in the coming weeks. SAFFIRE, Spacecraft Launch Experiments, allows the study of how fire behaves in microgravity in a safe environment. Cygnus has operated versions of this spacecraft several times.
“This is the sixth and final edition of the series, building on previous results of flammability testing at different oxygen levels, and to demonstrate fire detection and monitoring – as well as post-fire clean-up capabilities,” Turkington said.
Another commercial cargo ship currently active for NASA, SpaceX‘s the Dragon The capsule could bring science back to Earth, because it is designed to survive the fiery journey through our planet’s atmosphere and landing in the ocean.
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