New commercial supply ship reaches space station

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.