A commercial Cygnus cargo ship blasted off on a resupply mission to the International Space Station last March 22, Tuesday, at 11:05 pm. The spacecraft streaked into the night sky as it delivered record-breaking load of NASA data and experiments and supplies to space.
The Orbital ATK-made Cygnus launched atop an Atlas V rocket in a smooth liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, bringing almost 7,500 pounds of supplies and science research with it, including scientific data on fire in microgravity as well as equipment supporting some 250 studies.
This cargo, according to NASA, will provide ISS crews with the science payloads necessary to support and conduct experiments in scientific areas such as biotechnology and Earth science.
Kenneth Todd, operations integration manager for the ISS Program, hailed the launch at a post-launch press conference.
“For those of you that were here and saw it, I think you’d agree that it was an absolutely spectacular launch,” he said Wednesday morning.
Cygnus’ solar arrays deployed and unfurled as scheduled about two hours post-launch, keeping it right on track for its planned Saturday arrival at the space lab. Former NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, now sitting as president of the Space Systems Group of Orbital ATK, says the recipients might even find a number of Easter eggs on board, once the hatch is opened.
This is the second flight of Cygnus – now even carrying heavier cargo or 3.5 tons more than the December flight of the company. The last mission on OA-4 was also record-setting as it carried the largest payload that the rocket ever launched.
The space station had also flown overhead and separates from its booster, settling into orbit around the Earth. It will spend the next three days around Earth to maneuver carefully into a higher orbit.
On early Saturday, ISS astronauts will capture Cygnus using a robotic arm. From there the “fun” will begin as the crew will unload tools and experiments to explore, such as a 3D printer and Gecko Grippers to stick to the station walls.
Some of Cygnus’ gear, however, is not meant to stay on the ISS. The large-scale fire experiment, for instance, will be set free once the craft is released from the space station in May.
This resupply mission is Orbital ATK’s fifth out of 10 for NASA under a $2.6 billion deal. SpaceX maintains its own 12 missions, $1.6 billion deal, receiving a NASA order for additional five cargo missions in December.
This successful launch also broke a streak of failed ones, where the same company’s Antares rocket exploded during launch back in October 2014 and a Russian Progress craft failed to bring its supplies April last year.
June last year, too, saw the Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX exploding right after launch.
