By NASA
November 21, 2021
Northrop Grummans Cygnus resupply spacecraft. Credit: NASA
At 11:01 a.m. EST on November 20, 2021, flight controllers on the ground sent out commands to launch the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft from the Canadarm2 robotic arm after earlier separating Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. At the time of release, the station was flying about 260 miles over the South Pacific Ocean.
The Cygnus spacecraft successfully departed the International Space Station more than three months after reaching the spaceport station to provide about 8,000 pounds of clinical examinations and supplies to the orbiting laboratory.
The Northrop Grumman Cygnus space truck is in the grip of the Canadarm2 robotic arm moments before its release above the South Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA TV
After departure, the Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) stowed inside Cygnus will take measurements to show a thermal defense system for spacecraft and their contents during re-entry in Earths atmosphere, which can be difficult to replicate in ground simulations.
Cygnus will deorbit on Wednesday, Dec. 15, following a deorbit engine shooting to set up a damaging re-entry in which the spacecraft, filled with waste the area station team crammed in the spacecraft, will burn up in Earths atmosphere.
Cygnus reached the spaceport station on August 12, following a launch 2 days prior on Northrop Grummans Antares rocket from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. It was the businesss 16th commercial resupply services mission to the spaceport station for NASA. Northrop Grumman named the spacecraft after NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka, the very first Asian American astronaut.