Orbital ATK - Cygnus CRS-9 Mission patch.
July 15, 2018
Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) and Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA commanded the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus cargo spacecraft at 8:37 a.m. EDT. At the time of release, the station was flying 253 miles above the Southeastern border of Colombia. Earlier, ground controllers used the robotic arm to unberth Cygnus.
Northrop Grumman CRS-9 Cygnus departure (S.S. J.R. Thompson Cygnus)
The departing spacecraft will move a safe distance away from the space station before deploying a series of CubeSats. Cygnus will remain in orbit for two more weeks to allow a flight control team to conduct engineering tests.
Image above: The Cygnus cargo craft before its release from the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Image Credits: NASA TV/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
Cynus is scheduled to deorbit with thousands of pounds of trash on Monday, July 30, as it burns up harmlessly over the Pacific Ocean while entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The satellite deployment and deorbit burn will not be broadcast on NASA Television.
Image above: The Cygnus cargo craft slowly departs the space station after its release from the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Image Credit: NASA TV.
The spacecraft arrived on station May 24 delivering cargo for Orbital ATK’s (now Northrop Grumman’s) ninth contracted mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.
Related links:
Cygnus space freighter: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/northrop-grumman.html
Expedition 56: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition56/index.html
Spot the Station: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/NASA TV/SciNews/Mark Garcia/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
Best regards, Orbiter.ch
