Gallery: Antares rocket explodes

A commercial Cygnus supply ship left the International Space Station on Monday after delivering more than 5,000 pounds of cargo and experiments, ready to start a week of standalone operations to include a groundbreaking microgravity fire experiment and deployment of four commercial weather-monitoring CubeSats in orbit.

Wrapping up 109 days attached to the International Space Station, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship departed the orbiting research lab Tuesday to begin an extended four-month mission for additional technology demonstrations and smallsat deployments.

The NASA TV broadcast of the launch of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship bound for the International Space Station on March 22, 2016. (Membership Required)