One of the solar panels of the device did not open.
The Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which on November 7 < launched the Antares launch vehicle, successfully docked with the International Space Station. This happened despite the spacecraft having been in space for two days with only one solar panel functioning, CNN reported.
A few hours after the spacecraft reached orbit and separated from the launch vehicle, one of the solar panels of the device did not open. Teams on Earth tried to fix the problem by forcing the panel to open, but failed.
Also read: ISS had to maneuver to avoid fragment of Russian satellite
NASA and Northrop Grumman, which built the Cygnus capsule, decided to abandon attempts to deploy the panel and focus on docking with the ISS. It said the spacecraft had enough power to make the approach.
“The Cygnus team is gathering information on why the second panel did not deploy as planned,” NASA said in a statement.
Despite everything, the docking of the ship with the station was successful. In order for this to happen, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann used the robotic arm of the ISS to fix the ship and pull it to the docking port.
Related video
Recall that the Antares launch vehicle, which was used to launch the spacecraft, consists of two steps. The main structure of the first stage was developed by KB “Pivdenne” and manufactured by SE “VO PMZ” in cooperation with Ukrainian enterprises “Khartron-ARKOS” (Kharkiv), “Kyivprilad” (Kyiv), “Khartron-YUKOM” (Zaporizhia), LLC “CHESARA TELEMETRIA” “, “RAPID” (Chernihiv) and others by order of the Northrop Grumman Corporation (USA).
