Cygnus cargo ship berthed at area station – Spaceflight Now

An unpiloted Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship carrying 4 tons of provides and gear caught up with the Worldwide Area Station early Friday to wrap up a easy two-and-a-half-day rendezvous.

As the 2 spacecraft handed 260 miles above northern Africa, astronaut Woody Hoburg, working the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm from contained in the lab advanced, locked onto a grapple fixture on the base of the Cygnus at 5:52 a.m. EDT (0952 UTC).

From there, flight controllers on the Johnson Area Middle took over to tug the ship in for berthing on the central Unity module’s Earth-facing port the place motorized bolts drove residence to firmly lock the spacecraft in place two-and-a-half hours after seize.

Northrop Grumman names its cargo ships after astronauts, and the most recent car honored Laurel Clark who was killed when the area shuttle Columbia broke aside throughout re-entry in 2003.

“As we bear in mind Laurel and the whole crew of the area shuttle Columbia, we keep in mind that many grave sacrifices have been made to get us so far in human area exploration,” astronaut Frank Rubio radioed flight controllers. “It’s an honor to push the needle ahead of their reminiscence.”

Launched Tuesday evening from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Virginia’s Jap Shore, the Cygnus delivered 3,500 kilos of crew provides to the station, together with 2,490 kilos of analysis gear, greater than 2,000 kilos of station components and gear and 180 kilos of laptop gear and spacewalk provides.

Additionally on board: contemporary grapefruit, apples, oranges, cherry tomatoes and blueberries, together with a pizza equipment, an assortment of cheeses and ice cream.

With the Cygnus spacecraft safely hooked up, the astronauts are urgent forward with a busy schedule, gearing up for a Russian spacewalk subsequent Wednesday, the undocking of a Russian Progress provide ship August 20 and the arrival of one other Progress 4 days later.

Simply 4 hours after the Progress MS-24/85P spacecraft arrives, NASA and SpaceX plan to launch a Crew Dragon spacecraft from the Kennedy Area Middle on August 25 carrying 4 contemporary crew members to the station.

NASA astronaut and Crew 7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Area Company astronaut Andreas Mogensen, cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov and Japanese veteran Satoshi Furukawa will attain the station the day after launch.

They are going to change Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi — Crew 6 — who plan to undock for return to Earth on September 1 to wrap up a 179-day mission.

Two weeks after that, on September 15, Russia plans to launch a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut. That crew will change Rubio and two different cosmonauts who’re anticipated to return to Earth September 27 to shut out an prolonged 371-day mission.