Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus Spacecraft Docks with ISS to Resupply the Space Station

On Sunday, the Cygnus spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station after a successful launch from earth atop an Orbital Science Antares rocket on Thursday.

The astronauts in the ISS used the station’s robotic arm to capture and attach Cygnus which carried supplies and dozens of new science experiments from across the country and the world to the space station. This was the first successful cargo delivery by Orbital Sciences Corp under its commercial contract with NASA.

The docking occurred just after 6am eastern after NASA Astronaut Mike Hopkins took hold of Cygnus with the arm, and then Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency attached it to the Harmony Node of the space station.

Among the items carried to orbit by Cygnus are some vital science experiments, crew provisions, spare parts and other hardware.

Among the experiments are 23 student-designed science experiments which, among other things, will study the decreased effectiveness of antibiotics during spaceflight, and another which will examine how different fuel samples burn in microgravity, which could inform future design for spacecraft materials.