U.S. Cygnus cargo spaceship completes return-to-flight ISS mission

The U.S. Cygnus cargo spacecraft was released back to earth on Friday morning, following a highly successful mission that delivered about 3,500 kg of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA supplier Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the ISS on Dec. 9, 2015 with food, clothes and other goods. U.S. astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra aboard the ISS then filled the spacecraft with trash and released it at 7:26 a.m. EST (1226 GMT) for cremation.

Once the spacecraft arrives at a safe distance from the station, its engines will fire twice, pushing it to re-enter the atmosphere where it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean, U.S. space agency NASA said in a statement.

As Orbital ATK's fourth NASA-contracted commercial station resupply mission, the Cygnus resupply craft was launched on Dec. 6, 2015 on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Orbital ATK is one of the two companies hired by NASA to fly cargo to the ISS since the space shuttles were retired in 2011.

Its third mission was destroyed in a rocket explosion during launch in 2014. The other company, SpaceX, was also recovering from a similar launch explosion in June last year. Endi