Washington. February 22. INTERFAX - The American cargo spacecraft Cygnus, which successfully docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, brought fresh vegetables and fruits, as well as cheese to the crew members, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported.
According to the agency, among the food items, among others, cherry tomatoes, apples, oranges, cheddar and parmesan cheeses, nuts and smoked salmon were delivered.
In total, Cygnus delivered about 3.7 tons of cargo to the ISS, including food, as well as equipment and materials for dozens of scientific research.
The ship also brought Russian equipment to the station.
As reported by Interfax, the operation to attach the "truck" to the American segment of the station - the Unity module was completed on Monday at 07:16 East Coast time (15:16 Moscow time).
The ship that had previously approached the ISS was captured using the 17-meter Canadarm-2 manipulator arm, which was operated by Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi with the support of American astronaut Michael Hopkins. Then the operation was carried out to bring the ship to the American segment of the station-the Unity module for direct docking, which was carried out by commands from the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston.
The launch was carried out with the help of the carrier rocket Antares February 20 spaceport's NASA wallops flight facility, located on the eponymous island off the Atlantic coast of the U.S. state of Virginia.
It was made under a commercial contract between NASA and Northrop Grumman Corporation, which owns a launch vehicle and an automatic cargo spacecraft.
It is planned that the American "truck" will stay in the station for about three months. Cygnus will take the garbage and waste with it from the station. After an autonomous two-week flight under the commands of the NASA MCC in Houston, the ship will be driven out of orbit and burn up in the dense layers of the atmosphere.
This is the 15th flight of the space "truck" Corporation Northrop Grumman to the ISS. There was also one failed launch in 2014, when the ship did not reach the station due to the Antares launch vehicle accident. The first successful launch of Cygnus took place on September 18, 2013.
