Robotic arm links cargo craft to International Space Station

A robotic arm successfully docked the Cygnus cargo craft to the International Space Station on Monday, the second shipment of supplies in less than 24 hours.

At 7:31 a.m. Eastern, the craft was succesfully bolted into place by the Canadian-made robotic device, called Canadarm2, with the assistance of Expedition 57 astronauts Serena AuÃ±Ã³n-Chancellor of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, according to NASA. The third crew member is Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev.

For three months, the cargo ship will be attached to the space station before being deployed to perform several experiments. It then will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate with several tons of trash.

Early Saturday, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus was launched aboard an Antares 230 rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. It was Grumman's 10th cargo delivery flight.

Delivered were about 7,400 pounds of research and supplies, including fresh fruit and ice cream, and a 3D printer designed to recycle old plastic into new parts.

The Cygnus, dubbed the SS John Young after the late astronaut, is on the bottom of the station's Unity module.

At 2:28 p.m. Sunday, the Russian Progress 71 cargo ship docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on the Russian segment of the space station.

Unmanned crafts have been the only way to deliver supplies since a Soyuz launch was scrapped on Oct. 11 when a U.S. astronaut and Russian cosmonaut were forced to eject from their spacecraft.

The Russians plan to launch a Soyuz spacecraft on Dec. 3, boosting the lab's crew to six.

Mission controllers are now maneuvering the @NorthropGrumman Cygnus in the grips of Canadarm2 for installation to the Unity module. Watch live now on @NASA TV... https://t.co/yuOTrZ4Jut pic.twitter.com/CxazFPjNrd- Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) November 19, 2018

Related Links
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Russian space freighter docks with ISS in automatic mode
Moscow (Sputnik) Nov 20, 2018
The Progress MS-10 space freighter docked on Sunday with the International Space Stations (ISS) in an automatic mode, the Mission Control Center said. On Friday, the Russian Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the Progress MS-10 space freighter lifted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan for the first time since the failed launch in October. "The docking took place," an announcer of the Mission Control Center said. The freighter docked with the Zvezda module of the ISS Russian segment. ... read more