NASA Astronauts Capture Cygnus with Robotic Arm
At 4:59 a.m., NASA astronaut Loral O?Hara, with NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli acting as backup, captured Northrop Grumman?s Cygnus spacecraft using the International Space Station?s Canadarm2 robotic arm.
Capture of the unpiloted spacecraft was slightly delayed as flight control teams on the ground reconfigured a redundant radio communications system on Cygnus, which links up with the space station?s C2V2 (Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles) system. C2V2 is the primary communications system between the space station and visiting spacecraft.
Mission control in Houston will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to position Cygnus to its installation orientation and then will guide it in for installation on the station?s Unity module Earth-facing port.
NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and agency?s website will provide live coverage of the spacecraft?s installation at 6:30 a.m.
The spacecraft is named the S.S. Patricia "Patty" Hilliard Robertson in honor of the former NASA astronaut. The mission launched at 12:07 p.m. EST Jan. 30 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This is Northrop Grumman?s 20th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The Cygnus spacecraft is carrying a supply of 8,200 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory.
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