Jason Davis • Feb 19, 2016
In Pictures: Cygnus Takes out the Trash
Early this morning, astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra released a Cygnus cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station. Cygnus, which arrived in December, spent more than two months on orbit—longer than originally planned, giving the crew more time to fill the spacecraft with trash.
Flight controllers at Orbital ATK in Virginia will send Cygnus into Earth's atmosphere for a controlled reentry Saturday morning. The next ISS resupply flight is scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, when a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket sends another Cygnus craft into orbit.
Prior to that, one-year cremembers Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, along with cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, will return to Earth on March 1. About two weeks later, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Oleg Skriprochka and Alexey Ovchinin will launch to the station aboard Soyuz TMA-20M, joining the crew of Expedition 47.
Here are some images and video from today's Cygnus departure.
#Cygnus departs station at 7:26am ET/12:26pm UTC for Saturday deorbit over Pacific Ocean... https://t.co/04ofREJvXt https://t.co/LV8UOEpNRm
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) February 19, 2016
Support our core enterprises
Your support powers our mission to explore worlds, find life, and defend Earth. You make all the difference when you make a gift. Give today!
Donate