The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft successfully took off from the International Space Station on Tuesday, June 29 at 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT), more than four months after it reached orbit.
The disassembly was broadcast live on NASA TV, with the spacecraft separated from the orbital outpost on time. This allows the ship to begin secondary missions before it dies in the planned fire.
Ground operators remotely disengage the Cygnus latch from a port on the station and move it to the launch position before using the space station’s robotic arm to detach the spacecraft and send it to the way. NASA astronaut Megan McArthur has reviewed the operation. Departure from the space station
Related: Wow! NASA finds space station crossing the sun during spacewalk (video)
The official name is SS Katherine Johnson, the Cargo ship Cygnus NG-15 Launched on February 20, 2021, and docked with an orbital outpost two days later. Tucked inside weighs more than 8,200 pounds (3,700 kg) of research experiments and crew supplies.
The Cygnus cargo ship is usually a container for dumping waste. And this ship is no different. That’s why, on Monday (June 28) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the European Space Agency’s astronaut completed Cygnus’ bins before sealing the compartment. After it leaves the space station, Cygnus burns in Earth’s atmosphere as it falls from space and all the garbage is inside.
Shortly after leaving the SS space station, Katherine Johnson sent five smaller cubes as part of the Ionosphere Thermosphere Scanning Photometer for Ion-Neutral Studies (IT-SPINS) secondary mission. It is a mysterious and electrically charged part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. while the MYSAT-2 satellite will help students train to become better engineers. NASA officials wrote in a blog post.
Once Cygnus has installed all five CubeSats It will travel back to Earth. Burning as it descends into the atmosphere
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
Source link
