The Cygnus cargo shuttle has docked at the International Space Station with 3,720 kilos of supplies and scientific equipment on board, including a 3D printer from the European Space Agency.
The docking maneuver was slowed down to best complete a series of checks on the shuttle when it was 250 meters from the ISS.
Once the analyzes were completed, the maneuver then proceeded smoothly through the use of the Canadarm2 robotic arm controlled by NASA astronauts Loral O'Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli.
Launched on January 30 from the Cape Canaveral base in Florida, the Cygnus shuttle named after Patricia "Patty" Hilliard Robertson, in memory of a NASA astronaut who died in a plane crash in 2001, arrived at the ISS by attaching itself to the Unity module where it will remain until in May before returning to Earth and burning up completely in the atmosphere.
This is the 20th Cygnus cargo shuttle and the first to be launched with a Falcon 9 rocket, the previous ones had always been put into orbit by Antares or Atlas 5 rockets. On board the new Cygnus made by Northrop Grumman there are 3.7 tons of materials including the first surgeon robot destined for the ISS (a miniature prototype controllable from Earth), an ESA 3D printer used to produce small metal objects and a new computer developed by Hewlett Packard designed to analyze ISS data with l 'Artificial Intelligence, a solution that aims to avoid sending large volumes of data which must then be analyzed by computers on the ground.
The docking maneuver should have been completed at 10.20 am Italian time but during the approach the shuttle was stopped, as per practice, 250 meters from the ISS for a series of checks which however lasted longer than usual.
A delay that postponed the coupling of the shuttle with the robotic arm to 10:59 Italian time.
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