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Orbital ATK, an aerospace manufacturer, and NASA’s commercial partner, is set to launch its own Cygnus cargo spacecraft into space, to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). The Cygnus, filled with supplies and science experiments, is set to replenish the crew with food and water among other inventory.

However, this is not the full extent of the Cygnus’s mission. After unloading all the supplies, the Cygnus will be filled with trash from the station, and will afterwards proceed to separate.

Then, NASA will light the capsule on fire.

NASA wishes to do this because so far, we don’t truly understand how fires can spread in a vehicle in microgravity. Of course fires have been lit in space before, but they’ve been small so far, so NASA wants to set fire to the capsule to see how a much larger fire would spread, as part of an experiment called Saffire.

In order to monitor how the fires will burn, Nasa installed a number of instruments on the Cygnus in order to measure the temperature, and oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, as well as two cameras that should provide direct footage of the fire, which is supposed to burn for an approximate 20 minutes.

The test will also observe how different fabrics will react to the fire. The data will be relayed back to Earth, and ygnus will burn in the atmosphere as it returns to orbit.

Scientists will spend a week downloading all the data picked up from the intruments and cameras.

Cygnus will also deliver four additional science experiments to the ISS, including a 3D printer, adhesive strips that mimic how geckos stick to surfaces on Earth, and an instrument called Meteor that will be used to measure the composition of meteors entering the atmosphere.

The launch is scheduled to take place on March 22nd from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

For more information on Saffire, feel free to watch the following video: