(ORDO NEWS) — A Northrop Grumman capsule delivered several tons of supplies to the International Space Station on Wednesday despite a jammed solar panel.
The shipment arrived two days after leaving Virginia. Only one of the cargo ship’s two circular solar panels opened after takeoff.
The controllers were unable to open the second panel, but fortunately the capsule still managed to gain enough power to fly.
As the capsule slowly approached, the space station crew took pictures so the engineers could figure out what had gone wrong.
NASA astronaut Nicole Mann then used the station’s robotic arm to take over the spacecraft, named the SS Sally Ride after the first American woman in space.
Among the 3,700 kilograms of supplies were brackets needed for next week’s spacewalk, as well as apples, blueberries, cheese, peanut butter and ice cream for the station’s seven-man crew from Russia, the US and Japan.
Northrop Grumman is one of two companies that deliver supplies for NASA. SpaceX, the second company, will launch the cargo later this month.
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