Cygnus Freighter Reaches ISS With Only One Functioning Solar Array

The S.S. Sally Ride has safely docked on the International Space Station following a nail-biting journey by which one among its two photo voltaic arrays did not deploy.

Northrop Grumman’s expendable freighter launched on Monday, November 7, carrying 8,200 kilos of cargo to the ISS. On its solution to the orbiting area station, nonetheless, the Cygnus capsule did not deploy one of its two photo voltaic arrays, which collects energy for its journey via area. “Northrop Grumman is gathering data on the second array deployment and is working closely with NASA,” the area company wrote in a weblog publish on Monday.

Despite having just one absolutely unfurled photo voltaic array, the Cygnus spacecraft safely arrived on the ISS on Wednesday at 5:20 a.m. ET, in accordance with a NASA blog post. As the cargo capsule approached the station, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to seize the automobile and maneuver it in the direction of the station’s docking port. This is standard procedure for capturing Cygnus and never the results of the photo voltaic panel anomaly.

The 55-foot-long (17-meter) Canadian arm includes a “hand” that astronauts use to seize onto objects and even the ISS itself. After Mann commanded the robotic arm from contained in the ISS, floor controllers took over to information the capsule and dock it on the station’s Unity module, NASA wrote.

A cause for the malfunction has not but been disclosed. “To remain focused on the spacecraft’s arrival at the station, Northrop Grumman and NASA made the determination not to deploy the second solar array after initial attempts to deploy it were unsuccessful,” the area company stated.

This is Northrop Grumman’s 18th resupply mission to the ISS as a part of its Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, by which it delivers crew provides, gear, and science experiments to the orbiting station. The NG-18 Cygnus spacecraft was named after Sally Ride, the primary U.S. lady to succeed in area, a feat she achieved in 1983.

The cargo capsule delivered a various payload that features a 3D printer for producing human tissues, an experiment on rising vegetation in area, and the primary satellite tv for pc developed by Uganda and Zimbabwe. The freighter will keep hooked up to the ISS till its fiery disposal within the Earth’s ambiance in January.

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