After a period of over three months in which the spacecraft was berthed to the nadir (Earth-facing) port of the International Space Station’s Unity module, the 14th Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft vacated the vicinity of the orbital outpost on Wednesday after being unberthed and released from the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSMRS), also known as Canadarm2.
Release occurred at 10:11 am Eastern time (15:11 UTC), with NASA astronaut Kate Rubins monitoring the Cygnus spacecraft’s onboard systems during the departure phase.