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Cygnus Spacecraft Makes Historic Rendezvous With Space Station

Posted by samzenpus on from the open-the-success-lock dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Orbital Sciences Corp's robotic Cygnus spacecraft made history by docking with the International Space Station early Sunday. From the article: 'The robotic Cygnus spacecraft was captured by space station astronauts using the outpost's robotic arm at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) as the two spacecraft sailed over the Indian Ocean. The orbital arrival, which occurred one week later than planned due to a software data glitch, appeared to go flawlessly.'"

3 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. "Cygnus" means "swan" in Latin. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just so that everybody here knows, "cygnus" is Latin for "swan". I think that it's a very apt name for this amazing electromechanical device.

    Just like swans, this spacecraft is strong and regal. It is proud of who it is. And it is what it wants to be; it does not cater to the whims and desires of others.

    And just like swans, this spacecraft is about ruling its domain. While the swan rules the pond and the stream, this spacecraft rules the orbit of the Earth.

    Yet again like swans, I doubt that this spacecraft would hesitate for a moment when it comes to destroying a man's genitalia.

    If any spacecraft is to have the name Cygnus, I think that this one is very deserving.

  2. How was this historic? by WindBourne · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is really not that historic. They were not first private company to their. That was SpaceX. They did not build the unit that docked there. That was thale. The did not build the rocket. That was Russia and other companies of America.

    OSC simply assembled other ppl's work and called it theirs, while claiming enough money to pay for it all. IOW, OSC really did not put skin into the game.

    So again, nothing historic here.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  3. Historic? by jlv · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is historic only in that Orbital Sciences is closest to NASA at heart.

    Orbital has a $1.9B deal to provide 8 cargo flights. Each flight carries about 5000kg. Each is one way (no return payload).

    SpaceX has a $1.9B deal to provide 12 cargo flights. Each flight carries about 10000kg. Each provides two way payload delivery.

    Do the math. One of these makes sense. Unsurprisingly, the one that doesn't is the one that was stuck in orbit for a week.

    At least Orbital is a bargain compared to NASA's shuttle-component-derived SLS.