Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft leaving the space station, will test new technology before destruction

The Cygnus cargo spacecraft of Northrop Grumman disembarked from the International Space Station on Wednesday and is due to test new technologies before destroying its fiery destruction when it returns to Earth Atmosphere.

The unmanned vehicle arrived at the Orbital Space Laboratory on October 5, 2020. Pregnancy About 8,000 pounds of research supplies, testing, and hardware, including a new toilet. Cygnus exited the Canadarm2 space station at 10:11 a.m. ET over the eastern Pacific Ocean near the coast of Ecuador. After its departure from the International Space Station, the spacecraft will remain in orbit until January 26, to test new technologies known as SharkSat.

SharkSat’s electronic components focus on developing the Ka-Band Software Defined Radio (SRB). Ka-band refers to the frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum in which it operates, according to NASA. “As more applications use this spectrum to communicate, some bandwidths are getting increasingly congested,” the space agency explains on its website. website. “The Ka band of spectrum is currently less congested and offers hundreds of times faster data transfer rates than the bandwidth currently used.”

NASA’s new space toilet on its way to the International Space Station

“Potential uses for this technology include various types of 5G terrestrial communications, as well as space-to-space and space-to-Earth communications, among other things,” NASA added.

Cygnus also carries over 4,000 pounds of trash from the space station. After testing SharkSat’s technologies during its two-week orbit around Earth, NASA indicated that Cygnus will “clear the orbit” and dispose of garbage as it returns fiery back to Earth’s atmosphere, burning over the Pacific Ocean.

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Prior to its destruction, the spacecraft will also conduct fire safety experiments for the Saffire V spacecraft, which are designed to investigate primary flame growth and the limits of material flammability in space.

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