Smashing Success and Records: NG-19 Arrives at ISS

On August 4, at 09:52 UTC, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus, NG-19 S.S. Laurel Clark, was grappled by the International Space Station’s robotic arm, and subsequently berthed to the nadir (downward facing) port on the Unity Node. The successful capture and berthing wrapped up a flawless trip from Wallops to the orbiting laboratory – rounding out the career of the Antares 200 series launch vehicle in turn. 

The vehicle followed standard procedure for a spacecraft getting grappled by the ISS’ robotic arm, Canadarm2 – entering the Keep Out Sphere and station keeping within reach. Crew onboard the station, Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg, manually controlled the arm to grapple a specially designed fixture on the aft end of Cygnus. After berthing the crew will take their time to open the hatch and begin unpacking the 8,000 pounds of cargo onboard – enabling the orbital outpost to continue with their important mission of long duration science.

Our crew was present to cover the NG-19 launch from a variety of sites, which have resulted in some stunning images. All of this is possible thanks to the amazing folks at NASA Wallops for letting us roam the facility, and set us up for some amazing photography.

Edited by David Diebold.