Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Cygnus capsule successfully docked with the ISS, with a week ... - 20minutes.fr

unmanned Cygnus capsule American company Orbital Sciences arrived Sunday morning at 13h French time, the International Space Station (ISS) with a week late and docking was carried out smoothly, said Nasa.

crew of the ISS are “able to successfully capture the Orbital Sciences Cygnus capsule with the station’s robotic arm,” said the U.S. space agency said in a statement. The device will be operated by the Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano the European Space Agency and the American Karen Nyberg of NASA, the agency said.


First flight demonstration Orbital

Cygnus must deliver 590 kilos of goods and equipment, including food and clothing, for the six crew members of the ISS-37 Shipping – consisting of three Russians, two Americans and an Italian. The capsule should remain pegged to the station for a month. She was launched on 18 September by the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket from the Wallops Flight Center of NASA, located on an island near the coast of Virginia, the eastern United States.

This is the first demonstration flight to the ISS Orbital, one of two used by NASA, with the Californian company SpaceX private companies to deliver cargo to the ISS. In May 2012, SpaceX was the first private company to dock his ship, Dragon, the company station. She then made two more flights of cargo delivery to the ISS.

Unlike SpaceX Dragon capsule, Cygnus can not return to Earth will be destroyed by falling into the atmosphere over the Pacific after his mission. Due to a computer problem, securing the supply capsule had initially been shifted from Sunday to Tuesday, before being moved to the weekend again.


>> Watch the launch of Cygnus:

AFP

No comments:

Post a Comment