spacetoday.net: Cygnus spacecraft reenters

Posted: Thu, Oct 24, 2013, 8:08 AM ET (1208 GMT)
Cygnus approaching ISS illustration (Orbital Sciences Corp.)

The first Cygnus cargo spacecraft ended its mission Wednesday by reentering over the South Pacific. The spacecraft, which departed from the International Space Station Tuesday morning, reentered and broke up over the Pacific east of New Zealand at approximately 2:15 pm EDT (1815 GMT). Before departing, the spacecraft was loaded with trash from the station for disposal. Cygnus launched to the ISS on an Antares rocket on September 18 and berthed with the station on September 29. The reentry completed the demonstration mission of the Cygnus spacecraft, allowing Orbital to begin regular cargo flights to the station starting as soon as December. The mission also effectively ends NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which oversaw the development of Cygnus and Antares as well as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.