The latest delivery to the International Space Station supplied supplies, including pizza, for seven people.
Northrop Grumman’s cargo ship Cygnus departed Virginia’s east coast on Tuesday and is expected to reach the station on Thursday.
His 8,200-pound shipment includes fresh apples, tomatoes and kiwis, as well as a package of assorted pizzas and cheeses for the seven astronauts.
The shipment also includes a mounting chip for the new solar wings that will be sent to the orbiting lab next year, a material that simulates lunar dust and dirt that will be used to make items from a 3D printer. From the space station, a clay mold for a French education. The experiment is called BLOB and is an infrared detector designed as a prototype for future satellite tracking.
This is Northrop Grumman’s 16th presentation to NASA and its largest payload to date. The company’s Antares rocket lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
“Aloha to SS Alison Onizuka,” Northrop Grumman said via launch control minutes before takeoff. The capsule is named after Mr Onizuka of Hawaii, the first Asian American to go to space, who died in the Challenger launch disaster in 1986.
Another NASA shipper, SpaceX, will follow suit, with a delivery in a few weeks.
The space station currently has three Americans, two Russians, one French and one Japanese.
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