Live coverage of the departure of the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station is underway on NASA+, with its release from the robotic arm scheduled for 6:55 a.m. EDT. Coverage will conclude following departure from station.
Flight controllers on the ground sent commands earlier Friday morning for the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Cygnus from the Unity module’s Earth-facing port and then maneuvered the spacecraft into position for its release. NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers will monitor Cygnus’ systems during its departure from the space station.
After a deorbit engine firing on Sunday, March 30, Cygnus will begin a planned destructive re-entry, in which the spacecraft – filled with trash packed by the station crew – will safely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Cygnus arrived at the space station Aug. 6, 2024, following a launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It was the company’s 21st commercial resupply services mission to the space station for NASA. The spacecraft is named the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee in honor of the former NASA astronaut.
Get space station news, images and features via the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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