Days after a solar panel glitch worried engineers on Earth, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo resupply spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station. The spacecraft was captured by astronaut Nicole Mann using the robotic arm attached to the flying laboratory. The Canadarm-2 captured the Cygnus spacecraft carrying dozens of new scientific experiments and food for astronauts, who will now work on spacecraft installation to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port. Nasa said that the mission control in Houston will actively command the arm to rotate Cygnus to its installation orientation and then to guide it in for installation on the station’s Unity module Earth-facing port. The Cygnus spacecraft was launched on Monday on an Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. The 18th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station by Northrop Grumman carried a supply of 3,700 kilograms of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory.

“The spacecraft is named the S.S. Sally Ride in honor of the late astronaut, physicist, and first American woman to fly in space,” Nasa said in a blog update. The spacecraft had suffered a glitch when only one of the two solar panels on the Cygnus capsule opened successfully following the predawn liftoff. Officials had assured that there was enough power from the solar panel for Wednesday’s planned space station rendezvous.

                Source: India Today