SpaceX launches Northrop Grumman's biggest-ever cargo spacecraft on its 1st mission to the ISS

SpaceX launched Northrop Grumman’s new “Cygnus XL” cargo ship on its debut mission to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) on Sunday night (Sept. 14).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Cygnus freighter lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral House Drive Station at 6:11 p.m. EDT (2211 GMT).

The mission is called NG-23, as a result of it’s the twenty third cargo effort that Northrop Grumman flies to the ISS for NASA. NG-23 is the primary Cygnus launch since August 2024, when NG-21 took flight.

a white and black rocket lifts off on a bright plume with an orange glow, set against a blue sky with wispy white clouds. — SpaceX launched Northrop Grumman’s new “Cygnus XL” cargo ship on its debut mission to the Worldwide House Station on Sunday (Sept. 14). (Picture credit score: SpaceX/NASA)

NG-22 was purported to observe in January of this yr however was delayed to June attributable to avionics points. Then, in late March, NASA introduced that NG-22 had been referred to as off, because of injury the Cygnus incurred throughout transport to the launch web site.

NG-23 marks the debut of the Cygnus XL, a bigger and extra succesful model of the veteran freighter. The earlier iteration hauled about 8,500 (3,855 kilograms) kilos of cargo to the ISS, however Cygnus XL is taking 11,000 kilos (4,990 kg) up on this journey.

Among the many provides packed aboard the freighter are “supplies to provide semiconductor crystals in house and tools to develop enhancements for cryogenic gas tanks,” NASA officers wrote in an announcement. “The spacecraft additionally will ship a specialised UV gentle system to forestall the expansion of microbe communities that kind in water programs and provides to provide pharmaceutical crystals that might deal with most cancers and different ailments.”

NG-23’s Cygnus XL — which Northrop Grumman named S.S. William “Willie” McCool after one of many NASA astronauts who died within the 2003 house shuttle Columbia accident — is scheduled to reach on the ISS on Wednesday (Sept. 17) at 6:35 a.m. EDT (1035 GMT). It won’t dock autonomously however somewhat be captured and grappled by the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.

NASA will stream this arrival motion stay, starting at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on Wednesday.

a cargo vehicle separates from the upper stage of the rocket that launched it into Earth orbit

Northrop Grumman’s NG-23 Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. “Willie” McCool, separates from he higher stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched it into low Earth orbit. (Picture credit score: NASA/SpaceX)

The NG-23 Cygnus will keep connected to the orbiting lab till March 2026, when it should depart to fritter away in Earth’s ambiance.

Russia’s Progress freighter — certainly one of which simply arrived on the ISS on Saturday (Sept. 13) — is equally disposable, however the third presently operational ISS cargo craft, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, is completely different. Dragon makes parachute-aided ocean splashdowns, after which it’s recovered, refurbished and reflown.

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