Who says you need to be on Earth to get an Easter surprise?
The six astronauts at the International Space Station got their early Easter treat this weekend through Cygnus’ arrival, which marked a fresh batch of food, supplies and science experiments.
Orbital ATK’s unmanned Cygnus capsule, dubbed the S.S. Rick Husband, proved to be a good bunny as it blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida Tuesday night and brought a record-breaking 7,500 pounds of supplies and research to space, including scientific data on fire in microgravity and equipment that supports about 250 studies.
Using the ISS’ robotic arm, Canadarm2, Commander Tim Kopra captured Cygnus last March 26 at 6:51 a.m. EDT.
“Cygnus capture is complete,” Kopra then radioed to Mission Control in Houston, the spacecraft flying 252 miles above the southern Indian Ocean.
In a so-called textbook rendezvous, the cargo vehicle approached the space station slowly from beneath the complex, stopping at a number of waypoints to confirm all was normal. Cygnus arrived 40 feet below and allowed the robot arm to grapple it firmly.
The space crew and the assigned robotics officer in Houston then positioned the cargo vehicle for installation to the orbiting laboratory’s planet-facing port of the Unity module. Cygnus was bolted successfully into place at 10:52 a.m. EDT.
The hatchway into Cygnus was opened Sunday morning to start the unloading of supplies weighing thousands of pounds, and organizing them in their right locations. The astronaut office on Earth also threw in some personal items for the ISS crew as hidden surprises in their Easter eggs.
The cargo is made up of 2,511 pounds of crew supplies, 2,443 pounds of vehicle hardware and 1,713 pounds of science data, to name a few.
Found just inside the hatch is a welcome sign including a picture of the freighter’s namesake, Rick Husband, the pilot of the first space shuttle flight to dock with the ISS in 1999 and the commander of the ill-fated 2003 Columbia mission where a seven-person crew perished.
Cygnus will spend 55 days at the ISS before separating from the station, deploying small satellites and starting its destructive re-entry into the atmosphere of Earth in May. It will dispose of around 3,000 pounds of trash.
