A commercial space craft has departed the International Space Station (ISS), bringing with it the astronauts' trash.
Orbital Sciences Corporation's Cygnus spacecraft began its destructive descent into Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, where it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean, a NASA news release reported.
The craft delivered 3,000 pounds of goods to the ISS such as belated Christmas presents and ants for a student experiment being performed aboard the station, the Associated Press reported. The astronauts will also perform experiments that look into drug-resistant bacteria and how liquids in containers behave at zero gravity, Space.com reported.
The capsule was released by Orbital Sciences Corp. last month under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA.
The craft was detached from a robotic arm at t 1141 GMT (6:41 a.m. EST), Space.com reported. Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Koichi Wakata monitored the Cygnus craft's departure.The craft is one of eight that will be used to transport goods back and forth between the ISS.
NASA is paying Orbital Sciences and SpaceX to take care of deliveries for now, "Russia, Japan and Europe" are taking turns with the task, the AP reported. The SpaceX Dragon is the only craft capable of returning such supplies after several NASA shuttles have been retired.
American companies such as SpaceX are working on making an crafts that can effectively carry astronauts to and from the space station, until that happens NASA will have to continue hitching Soyuz rides.
Americans have not launched themselves into space since the last shuttle departure in 2011, and it is not expected to happen again until at least 2017.
"The departure of Cygnus clears the way for the arrival of Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo ship on its third commercial resupply mission, SpaceX-3. Dragon is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 16," the news release reported.
