The Cygnus supply spacecraft has completed its mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and is due to be destroyed in flames, as it plummets to the Earth.
Cygnus arrived at the ISS on 12 January, becoming the latest craft to bring supplies up to the station. The spacecraft spent more than a month attached to the Harmony node of the ISS. When it arrived, Cygnus was packed with nearly 2,800 pounds of crew provisions, hardware and spare parts for the station. There were also holiday presents for the crew, and a large number of ants that were part of a student experiment. This robotic mission , Orb 1, was the second Cygnus spacecraft to bring supplies to the ISS. Nearly 45,000 pounds of supplies are due to be delivered to the station by the craft through 2016.
The craft has now been detached from the station, using the robotic arm attached to the ISS. This delicate operation was guided by NASA's Michael Hopkins, and Koichi Wakata, from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The pair watched watched their work through windows, as the supply craft got unattached. Hopkins is the astronaut who used the robotic arm to grip onto Cygnus when it first arrived at the ISS last month.
The Cygnus supply ship, which is now heading towards destruction, has been loaded with garbage and waste from the space station. This is standard procedure for supply vehicles scheduled for destruction. The undocking mission of Cygnus began at 5.15am EST Tuesday, Feb. 18, and was completed at 6.41am EST. Engines aboard the doomed craft was fired twice, sending Cygnus toward its ultimate fate. At 8am EST Wednesday,, the spacecraft will begin to slip into the Earth's atmosphere, burning up over the Pacific Ocean.
In the last week, astronauts aboard the space station launched a series of mini-satellites, called CubeSats. This successful launch followed a failed attempt one day before.
The next supply mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for 16 March. On that day, SpaceX plans to launch a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS. The mission will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The Dragon spacecraft will bring additional science experiments and other materials up to the crew.
In addition to SpaceX, the nations of Japan and Russia, along with Europe, are delivering needed supplies to the space station. The Soyuz spacecraft, which launched travelers to the station, is too small to carry supplies along with people.
The ants sent up on the Cygnus mission will remain aboard the space station and will come back to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon.
