US Cygnus spacecraft arrives at space station: NASA

A commercial spacecraft, operated by US space company Orbital Sciences Corp., arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday for its second cargo resupply mission to the orbiting lab, US space agency NASA said.

The unmanned Cygnus spacecraft was successfully captured by a robotic arm operated by astronauts inside the ISS at 6:36 a.m. EDT (1036 GMT) as the two flew 260 miles (about 418 km) over northern Libya, NASA said.

About two hours later, Cygnus was berthed to the Earth-facing port of the space station's Harmony module.

The spacecraft launched atop Orbital's Antares rocket on Sunday from NASA's launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.

The mission, called Orbital-2, is delivering almost 3,300 pounds (about 1,500 kg) of supplies for the ISS and its crew.

Among the research investigations aboard Cygnus are a flock of Earth-imaging nanosatellites, hardware to enable a trio of free-flying robots to perform 3D mapping inside the ISS and a host of student experiments.

This is the second of the eight Antares and Cygnus cargo delivery missions to the ISS under Orbital's 1.9-billion-US-dollar Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

The ship will remain attached to the ISS for about 30 days before departing with trash for a destructive reentry in Earth's atmosphere.

Orbital launched its first cargo resupply mission in January. The company said its third cargo mission has been scheduled for October, with another three resupply launches being planned for 2015.

Besides Orbital, NASA has also signed a deal with another private company called SpaceX to supply cargo to the ISS.