According to the representatives of the American space agency, a very unusual experiment called Saffire-II is currently taking place in low-earth orbit, according to which a fire situation is specially created on the Cygnus cargo unmanned vehicle, which previously delivered cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
The fire was created after the shuttle undocked from the ISS on November 22 and the first telemetry data were received. According to NASA's plans, before the spacecraft reaches the dense layers of the Earth's atmosphere, nine samples of materials of various densities must burn in it.
Freeze frame from the video of the Saffire-II experiment to study the propagation of flame in space aboard the Cygnus cargo ship
Through the experiment, NASA plans to study the flammability of various materials in low-gravity conditions and to determine the effectiveness of current fire safety measures on spacecraft. It will also make it possible to predict options for the development of events in the event of a real fire hazardous situation in space.
Sources: NASA
