14 DAY TRIAL // Officials from the European Space Agency (ESA) announced recently that the unmanned Cygnus resupply spacecraft sent to the International Space Station (ISS) by Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Science Corporation (OSC) has separated from the space lab on Monday, February 17, 2014.
The vehicle spent a day in orbit, before its trajectory made it bump into the upper atmosphere on Tuesday. The spacecraft was safely destroyed high above the surface, and only minimal amounts of debris have made their way to the surface.
This was the second Cygnus capsule developed by OSC. The first demonstration flight, carried out by another capsule (pictured above) took place in September of last year. The new mission spent around a month berthed to the ISS before being deorbited.
Orbital Sciences uses a pressurized vessel for Cygnus that was developed by Thales Alenia Space, one of the most important ESA contractors for space missions, and built in Turin, Italy. The company is under a NASA contract to conduct several ISS resupply flights over the next 5 years.