Thursday’s Pandora ops already ran. This is Saturday’s unused departure.
NASA, Mark A. Garcia, Friday 1:01 p.m.: Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL was released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 12:44 p.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 9, after it detached from the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station’s Unity module. At release the station was flying about 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean. The craft had arrived nearly six months earlier with about 11,000 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo for NASA and its partners. A release is not a deorbit. 11,000 pounds is the arrival load. It is not a Monday burn we invent.
Same NASA file: mission controllers will command the spacecraft to deorbit Monday, Oct. 12, carrying several thousand pounds of disposal items into Earth’s atmosphere, where NASA said it will harmlessly burn up. NASA will not provide coverage of that deorbit. Monday has not happened. We will not type a re-entry from a Friday blog. Thursday already filed Pandora in science operations — 20 worlds, 10 stares of 24 hours. We will not reprint that telescope as first-day news. ALDS Game 5 is listed later. We will not invent a 5 p.m. or 8 p.m. box.
What this means for you
If you needed Thursday’s unused science, it still stands as Pandora in operations. If you needed Saturday’s unused NASA paper, it is Cygnus XL off the arm at 12:44, cargo in, burn not yet. A schedule is not a score.
Bottom line: Released 12:44. About 11,000 pounds in. Deorbit Monday, not covered. Not a burn. Not Pandora reprinted.
GLHR NEWS explains the news. Not investment, tax, or trading advice. Do your own work before you act.
