This beautifully colored image was taken by astronaut Randy Bresnick from the International Space Station on Dec. 6 as the craft departed the ISS. The Cygnus cargo container, built by Orbital ATK, caught the light at sunrise. This intricate machine is currently filled with some less than elegant cargo — 6,200 pounds of trash, which will burn up along with the vehicle in the Earth’s atmosphere on Monday, Dec. 18. That’s not the Cygnus’ only purpose, though: on Dec. 6 it also released 14 CubeSats.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense