A cargo ship reaches the space station despite the jammed solar panel

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press Published Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:08 PM EST Last Updated Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:08 PM EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A Northrop Grumman capsule delivered several tons of supplies to the International Space Station Wednesday despite a stuck solar panel.

The shipment arrived two days after the launch from Virginia. Only one of the cargo ship’s two circular solar panels opened after liftoff. Flight controllers tried in vain to open the jammed panel, but managed to draw enough power for flight with only one.

As the capsule slowly approached, the space station crew took pictures so engineers could figure out what went wrong. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann then used the station’s robot arm to grab the spacecraft, named the SS Sally Ride in honor of America’s first woman in space.

The company’s vice president, Cyrus Dalla, later said that a piece of debris from the Antares rocket got stuck in one of the solar panel mechanisms during liftoff and prevented it from being released.

Among the 8,200 pounds (3,700 kilograms) of supplies: staples needed for next week’s spacewalk to expand the station’s power, as well as apples, blueberries, cheese, peanut butter and ice cream for the station’s seven-member crew from the U.S., Russia and Japan .

Northrop Grumman is one of two companies that deliver payloads to NASA. The other is SpaceX, which will launch a delivery later this month.

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