New commercial supply ship reaches space station

September 29, 2013 05:22 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 06:36 am IST - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket lifts off from the launchpad at the NASA facility on Wallops Island, Virginia on April 21, 2013.

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket lifts off from the launchpad at the NASA facility on Wallops Island, Virginia on April 21, 2013.

NASA’s newest delivery service has finally made it to the International Space Station.

After a week’s delay, Orbital Science Corp.’s Cygnus cargo ship pulled up at the orbiting lab on Sunday morning. The space station astronauts used their robot arm to grab it. The capsule is making its debut on this test flight, and contains more than a half-ton of food, clothes and other supplies for the six astronauts.

It marks a major accomplishment 260 miles (418 kilometres) up. Only one other private company has ever made such a high-flying shipment.

Orbital Sciences launched the Cygnus capsule from Virginia on September 18. It was supposed to reach the space station four days later, but got held up by inaccurate navigation data. A software patch fixed everything.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.