NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren (CHELL LEND-grin) used the station’s big robot arm to grab the cargo ship, operating the crane via joy sticks.
Advertisement
Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday, carrying more than 7,000 pounds (3,000 kilograms) of water, food and supplies for global astronauts. Lindgren joked Monday on Twitter while practicing for the grappling operation.
He further said that once they’ll receive the “go” from Mission Control in Houston they will then start to approach to the station.
After separating from the rocket, the spacecraft successfully deployed new circular solar arrays for generating power and has completed several engine burns to line up its orbit with the station’s more than 250 miles above Earth.
The Cygnus blasted off from Florida’s Space Coast at 4:44 p.m. Sunday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, lifting off on its fourth attempt. Orbital supply runs had been on hold ever since a launch explosion previous year.
Orbital ATK, one of the companies NASA contracted to deliver supplies to the ISS had its resupply rocket explode on October last year, and the other company, SpaceX, also experienced a launch failure this year June.
Advertisement
It is the first of two Christmas space deliveries to the space station. They wore retro-style white shirts, black slacks and skinny black ties in honor of the Mercury astronaut for whom the capsule had been named, Deke Slayton, a commercial space pioneer before his death in 1993. They’re especially eager to see the Cygnus contents, since they won’t be back on the planet until March.
