Unmanned cargo ship Cygnus self-destruct after leaving ISS

On August 17, Cygnus Unmanned Commercial Spacecraft of Orbital Sciences Group (USA) burned and destroyed itself as planned when returning to Earth's atmosphere.

>>>Cygnus "docked" the international space station

Cygnus was launched on July 13 to carry out a 1-month refueling mission for the International Space Station (ISS).

Unmanned commercial spacecraft Cygnus.(Photo: NASA)

After completing the mission, Cygnus was released from orbit on August 15 at 10:40 am (GMT) and moved in orbit independently for two days before starting the engine and returning. Earth's atmosphere.

The combustion of Cygnus has been planned to last for about 30 minutes. The crew on the ISS monitored and recorded the process.

Cygnus was launched from East Virginia, using Antares missiles built by Orbital Sciences.

This mission is the second commercial flight of Orbital Sciences' eight spacecraft launched to ISS until 2016, according to a cargo service contract (Commercail Resuppy Services) worth $ 1.9 billion. USD by Orbital Sciences with the US Aerospace Agency (NASA).

During this flight, Cygnus carried 1,657kg of goods including food, machinery parts and scientific equipment.