Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus spacecraft has disintegrated after re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, marking the completion of a second commercial resupply mission.
Astronauts aboard the orbiting lab released the supply ship using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.
Nasa said after leaving the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, the spacecraft remained in independent orbit for two days prior to a fiery entry over the Pacific Ocean.
Cygnus was launched into orbit aboard Orbital’s Antares rocket on 13 July from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Nasa’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, US.
On 16 July, the spacecraft completed its rendezvous and approach manoeuvres with the ISS and was grappled with the station.
Cygnus delivered approximately 3,300lb of cargo and science payloads on launch, in addition to 2,800lb of disposable cargo on its return to Earth.
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By GlobalDataA group of nanosatellites were also shipped to the ISS for future release from the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock.
The launch was part of Orbital Sciences’ $1.9bn contract with Nasa to deliver up to 20,000kg of cargo to the ISS over eight missions until late 2016.
Orbital Sciences is one of the two companies selected by Nasa to deliver goods to ISS. California-based SpaceX is scheduled to conduct its next supply run in September.
