Cygnus Berths at ISS

The Cygnus spacecraft is now fully berthed at the ISS following the rendezvous, approach and grapple sequence performed by the NASA and Orbital teams. Expedition 37 crew members Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to grapple Cygnus and guide it to the berthing port on the station's Harmony node on Sunday morning, Sept. 29, 2013, after a flawless approach and in-orbit demonstration sequence. Karen Nyberg of NASA provided back up at the secondary robotics workstation inside the Destiny laboratory. 

 

The opening of the hatch and cargo retrieval is expected to begin Sept. 30, 2013, after leak checks and power connections are made. Cygnus is scheduled to remain berthed at the ISS until the end of October, when it will depart carrying disposal cargo away from the station. A successful conclusion to this COTS demonstration mission will pave the way for Orbital to begin regularly scheduled cargo resupply missions to the ISS under the CRS contract as early as December.

 

Orbital Sciences is the second company to send a commercial cargo craft to the space station.