NASA Astronauts Capture Cygnus Cargo Craft with Robotic Arm

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus space freighter is pictured in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm following its capture as both spacecraft orbited above Africa. Credit: NASA TV
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter is pictured in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm following its capture as both spacecraft orbited above Africa. Credit: NASA TV

At 5:52 a.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg, with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio acting as backup, captured Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft using the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. 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.

NASA Television, the NASA app, and agency’s website will provide live coverage of the spacecraft’s installation beginning at 7:30 a.m.

The Cygnus spacecraft launched Tuesday, Aug. 1, on the company’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 8:31 p.m. This is Northrop Grumman’s 19th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The Cygnus spacecraft is carrying a supply of over 8,200 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory.

Northrop Grumman named the Cygnus the S.S. Laurel Clark in honor of the late NASA astronaut, undersea medical officer, and naval flight officer, Laurel Clark.


Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog@space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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