Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press Published Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:08 PM EST Last Updated Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:08 PM EST
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – A Northrop Grumman capsule delivered several tons of supplies to the International Space Station on Wednesday despite a jammed solar panel.
The shipment arrived two days after the launch from Virginia. Only one of the cargo ship’s two round solar panels opened after liftoff. Flight controllers tried in vain to open the stuck panel, but managed to extract enough power for flight with only one.
As the capsule slowly approached, the space station crew took pictures so engineers could understand what went wrong. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann used the station’s robotic arm to grab the spacecraft, named the SS Sally Ride after the first American woman in space.
A company vice president, Cyrus Dhalla, later said that a piece of debris from the Antares rocket became lodged in one of the solar panel mechanisms during liftoff and prevented its release.
Among the 8,200 pounds (3,700 kilograms) of supplies: props needed for a spacewalk next week to expand the station’s power, as well as apples, blueberries, cheese, peanut butter and ice cream for the American crew , Russian and Japanese from the station.
Northrop Grumman is one of two companies that provide cargo for NASA. The other is SpaceX, which will launch a shipment later this month.
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