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the Cygnus Spaceship (February 25) completed its last NASA replenishment mission to the International Space Station (ISS) with a lethal dive into the Earth 's atmosphere.
The robotic ship Cygnus – named "S.S. John Young" in honor of the late commander of NASA's Apollo 16 lunar mission – launched in November on an Antares rocket and delivered about 7,400 lbs. (3,350 kilograms) of scientific supplies and equipment for the orbiting laboratory.
The freighter, built by the Northrop Grumman aerospace company, remained docked at the station for 81 days. he left on February 8, loaded with more than 5,500 pounds. (2500 kg) of waste to be removed by fire during the re-entry.[[[[The private spaceship Antares Rocket & Cygnus explained (infographic)]
But this fall did not happen immediately, because Cygnus still had work to do as a free flyer for an additional commercial mission. The cargo ship deployed several small cubes in Earth orbit for various customers and also operated a commercial payload onboard for a period of time.
"Cygnus has achieved a flawless mission that has demonstrated its ability to function as a scientific platform in orbit and a launch pad for deploying satellites on extended missions," said Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager of systems at Northrop Grumman. said in a statement.
Cygnus burned over the Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand, at 4:05 EST (0:05 GMT) this morning, representatives of Northrop Grumman said.
The replenishment mission that had just been completed was the tenth Cygnus / Antares duo participation under a CRS-1 (Commercial Replenishment Services, Phase 1) contract with NASA. The next flight, in April, will be the last one under this agreement. deliveries under the next contract, called CRS-2, will begin this fall.
SpaceX also performs commercial replenishment missions to the ISS for NASA, using its Dragon Cargo robot capsule and its Falcon 9 rocket. Unlike Cygnus, Dragon is reusable. the latter generates parachute-assisted ocean splashing, so that it can bring scientific samples and other equipment to Earth for analysis.
SpaceX is also working on a Dragon crew variant under a separate commercial crew contract with NASA. Crew Dragon must make his maiden flight, a trip without preparation in the ISS known as Demo-1this Saturday (March 2nd). If all goes well with Demo-1, the capsule could carry its first astronauts to the laboratory in orbit in July.
Aerospace giant Boeing also holds a commercial team contract with NASA. Boeing's CST-100 capsule will make its first unprepared mission at the station no earlier than April.
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Outside The"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate) is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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