If anyone else heads to the International Space Station, they’re going to need to circle until Friday waiting for a parking slot.
The station is at full capacity after the successful fully-automated arrival of ATV-5. Now five spacecraft are currently docked to the station: ATV-5, Soyuz 38 (TMA-12M), Soyuz 39 (TMA-13M), Orbital Cygnus, and Progress 56.
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-last-journey-for-esas-cargo-carrying-space-1619720572
https://gizmodo.com/sunrise-on-the-soyuz-rollout-1550522610
https://gizmodo.com/night-launch-photos-are-straight-out-of-a-movie-1587939053
https://gizmodo.com/orbitals-cargo-run-to-the-space-station-is-a-picture-pe-1604477131
ATV-5 arrived at 9:30 am EDT on Tuesday, filling the last vacant berth.
The Soyuz capsules are loitering around to bring their respective astronaut crews back to Earth at the end of their missions, and to provide a bit of extra living space in the meantime. The other cargo carriers are serving as storage pods, and once they’re unloaded, garbage disposal units. Cygnus will leave on Friday morning, headed out for a destructive re-entry in its last mission as a garbage incinerator for the space station.
Image credit: NASA
