MIAMI: How does fire act in space? Researchers will soon find out, by igniting nine different materials aboard an unmanned spaceship on its way to a fiery re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere, Nasa said on Monday.

The Cygnus cargo ship operated by the US company Orbital ATK left the International Space Station, packed with 1.5 tons of garbage, at 8:22am on Monday.

Ultimately, the whole spaceship and its contents will burn up on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere at 6:30pm on Sunday.

But until then, the spaceship transforms into a test bed that aims to improve safety for astronauts living in space by helping experts better understand how fire behaves in microgravity.

Published in Dawn November 22nd, 2016