On board the Cygnus will be, among other things, a 3D printer that uses a material that simulates the soil of the Moon, an air purification device for carbon dioxide, a mounting bracket
NEW YORK, July 8. /TASS/. The next resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) using the Cygnus cargo ship is scheduled for August 10. This was announced on Wednesday by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"This will be the 16th commercial mission to deliver supplies, instruments and materials for research, as well as equipment for the station to the ISS on the Cygnus ship of Northrop Grumman Corporation ("Northrop Grumman"). The launch of the Antares launch vehicle is scheduled for August 10 at 17: 55 on the East Coast of the United States (00: 55 Moscow time, August 11) from the NASA spaceport on Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia, " NASA clarified on its website.
On board Cygnus will be, among other things, a 3D printer that uses a material that simulates the soil of the Moon, a device for cleaning the air from carbon dioxide on spacecraft using new technologies, a mounting bracket that is supposed to be installed on the supporting frame of solar panels during a spacewalk at the end of August.
Antares is a two-stage rocket, the first stage of which is equipped with Russian RD-181 engines developed by NPO Energomash. Docking with the ISS will be carried out using the Canadarm 2 manipulator arm. At the end of the mission, Cygnus will pick up garbage and waste from the station and after about two weeks it will burn up in the dense layers of the atmosphere.
The previous launch of Cygnus took place on February 20, it undocked from the ISS on June 29. Cargo is also delivered to the station by SpaceX Dragon ships under a contract with NASA. Russians Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, Americans Shane Kimbrough, Mark Vande Hai and Megan MacArthur, Frenchman Tom Pesquet and Japanese Akihiko Hoshide are on duty at the ISS.