Cygnus Cargo Ship Arrive at Space Station after Solar Array Trouble
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Cygnus cargo ship arrive at space station after solar array trouble - Spaceflight Now:
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship arrived at the International Space Station Wednesday, overcoming a deployment failure on one of its two power-generating solar arrays to deliver 4.1 tons of cargo and experiments to the complex.
The Cygnus spacecraft, nicknamed the "S.S." Sally Ride after the first U.S. woman to fly in space, was captured by the station's Canadian-built robotic arm at 5:20 a.m. EST (1020 GMT) Wednesday as the complex sailed more than 250 miles over the Indian Ocean. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann controlled the robotic arm for the capture of the Cygnus supply ship.
The mission, designated NG-18, marked the 18th arrival of a Cygnus supply ship at the space station since 2013. Northrop Grumman has a multibillion-dollar cargo transportation contract with NASA to ferry supplies to the space station, alongside NASA's other incumbent supply ship operator SpaceX.
"Huge congratulations to the NG-18 team for their tireless efforts getting 'Sally Ride' to the ISS and for a successful capture today," Mann radioed mission control from her operating post on the space station.
Ground controllers planned to take over commanding of the robotic arm later Wednesday morning to position the Cygnus spacecraft on an Earth-facing berthing port on the space station's Unity module. Once the Cygnus spacecraft is firmly bolted to the Unity module, astronauts on the station will open hatches to begin unpacking some 8,265 pounds (3,749 kilograms) of cargo inside its Italian-made pressurized cabin.
The Cygnus supply ship launched Monday from Wallops Island, Virginia, aboard an Antares rocket. But Northrop Grumman engineers determined the supply ship only deployed one of its two fan-shaped solar arrays after deploying from the rocket in orbit.
Northrop Grumman and NASA engineers determined the Cygnus spacecraft had sufficient power to rendezvous with the space station Wednesday.
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