Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov
Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
josh.byerly@nasa.gov
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RELEASE 13-308
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Orbital Sciences Cygnus Spacecraft Departs Space Station, Ends
Demonstration Mission for NASA
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A cargo resupply demonstration mission by Orbital Sciences Corp. drew to a
close Tuesday as Expedition 37 crew members aboard the International Space
Station detached and released the Dulles, Va., company's Cygnus spacecraft
from the orbiting laboratory.
Cygnus had been attached to the space station's Harmony module for 23 days.
The spacecraft delivered about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo,
including food, clothing and student experiments. Future Cygnus flights will
ensure a robust national capability to deliver critical science research to
orbit, significantly increasing NASA's ability to conduct new science
investigations to the only laboratory in microgravity.
"Congratulations to the teams at Orbital Sciences and NASA who worked hard to
make this demonstration mission to the International Space Station an
overwhelming success," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "We are
delighted to now have two American companies able to resupply the station.
U.S. innovation and inspiration have once again shown their great strength in
the design and operation of a new generation of vehicles to carry cargo to
our laboratory in space. Orbital's success today is helping make NASA's
future exploration to farther destinations possible."
Prior to its departure from the station, Cygnus was loaded with items no
longer needed aboard the station. Astronauts Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca
Parmitano of the European Space Agency detached the spacecraft using the
station's robotic arm and released Cygnus at 7:31 a.m. EDT. Orbital Sciences
engineers now will conduct a series of planned burns and maneuvers to move
Cygnus toward a destructive re-entry in Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, Oct.
23.
Cygnus was launched Sept. 18 on Orbital's Antares rocket from the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in
Virginia.
The maiden flight of Cygnus and its 11-day journey to the station included a
number of tests designed to demonstrate the spacecraft's ability to navigate,
maneuver, lock on to the station and abort its approach. Following these
demonstrations NASA cleared the spacecraft to approach the station Sept. 29.
Cygnus had been scheduled for a rendezvous with the space station Sept. 22,
but because of a data format mismatch, the first rendezvous attempt was
postponed. Orbital updated and tested a software patch to resolve the issue.
Orbital built and tested its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft under
NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program. NASA
initiatives, such as COTS, are helping to develop a robust U.S. commercial
space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and
cost-effective transportation to and from low-Earth orbit to meet the needs
of both commercial and government customers. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
also is working with commercial partners to enable the availability of U.S.
commercial human spaceflight capabilities in the next few years.
The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and
human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research
breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has had crew members
continuous on board since November 2000. In that time, it has been visited by
more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial
spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great
leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.
For more information about the Orbital demonstration mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/orbitalFor more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
