spacetoday.net: Cygnus departs ISS

Posted: Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 7:30 AM ET (1130 GMT)
Cygnus departs ISS on 1st mission (NASA)

The first Cygnus cargo spacecraft completed its demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, departing the station for a destructive reentry. The station's Canadarm2 robotic arm unberthed the Cygnus spacecraft from the station's Harmony node at around 6 am EDT (1000 GMT) Tuesday and released it an hour and a half later. Cygnus used its thrusters to quickly depart the vicinity of the station; it will fire its thrusters one final time Wednesday afternoon to deorbit and reenter destructively. Cygnus launched on an Antares rocket September 18 and berthed with the station September 29. Cygnus brought about 700 kilograms of cargo to the station, and was loaded with 1,100 kilograms of trash for disposal before departing. The success of the mission clears the way for Orbital to begin regular cargo delivery missions as soon as December.