NEW YORK, June 28. /TASS/. The US-made Cygnus spacecraft, produced by Northrop Grumman, undocked from the International Space Station Tuesday after four months spent in the orbit, according to a live stream on the NASA website.
The undocking occurred at 14:07 Moscow time. The spacecraft was moved away from the station via the Canadarm 2 manipulator, controlled by specialists on Earth. Later, the Cygnus, loaded with garbage from the ISS will burn down in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
The spacecraft was launched on February 19 aboard the Antares rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. The rocket was equipped with Russian-made RD-181 engines, developed by Energomash. The Cygnus docked with the ISS on February 21, delivering over 3.7 tonnes of various cargo: food, spare parts and scientific equipment, including materials for research on skin ageing in zero gravity, effect of medicines on tumors and a new system for growing plants in the orbit.
NASA used Cygnus engines to correct the ISS orbit to a higher altitude. As of today, Russian Progress MS remain the main means for orbit correction and space junk evasion maneuvers. The US spacecraft was used for this purpose for the first time since 2011.