Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: International Space Station (ISS) astronauts on Wednesday captured stunning photos of Cygnus spacecraft burning up in the atmosphere above Earth`s surface after completing its mission on August 17.
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andrew Gerst and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suarev captured the amazing photos. The cargo ship Cygnus, bearing a load of 1,657 kilograms of gear, food and science experiments was reloaded with garbage which was supposed to be disposed off during the destruction of the aircraft.
The unmanned Cygnus spacecraft, remained attached with the ISS for 31 days and then broke apart in the sky east of New Zealand at 9:15 AM EDT (13:15 GMT).
Orbital Sciences, which has $1.9 billion contract with NASA, will fly at least eight cargo missions to the space station under the space agency`s commercial supply program. Cygnus is the second of eight cargo supply missions to be launched.
California-based SpaceX became the first private company to reach the space station with its Dragon capsule in 2012. Under a $1.6 billion contract with the NASA, SpaceX has so far made two of its 12 scheduled flights to the ISS.
