SpaceX will launch Northrop Grumman’s new “Cygnus XL” cargo ship on its debut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) this night (Sept. 14), and you may watch the motion reside.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Cygnus freighter is scheduled to launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at the moment at 6:11 p.m. EDT (2211 GMT).
The mission is known as NG-23, because it will be the 23rd cargo effort that Northrop Grumman flies to the ISS for NASA. NG-23 will be the first Cygnus liftoff since August 2024, when NG-21 took flight.
NG-22 was supposed to follow in January of this year but was delayed to June due to avionics issues. Then, in late March, NASA announced that NG-22 had been called off, as a result of damage the Cygnus incurred during transport to the launch site.
NG-23 will mark the debut of the Cygnus XL, a larger and more capable version of the veteran freighter. The previous iteration hauled about 8,500 (3,855 kilograms) pounds of cargo to the ISS, but Cygnus XL is taking 11,000 pounds (4,990 kg) up on this trip.
Among the supplies packed aboard the freighter are “materials to produce semiconductor crystals in space and equipment to develop improvements for cryogenic fuel tanks,” NASA officials wrote in a statement. “The spacecraft also will deliver a specialized UV light system to prevent the growth of microbe communities that form in water systems and supplies to produce pharmaceutical crystals that could treat cancer and other diseases.”
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 area shuttle Columbia accident — is scheduled to reach on the ISS on Wednesday (Sept. 17) at 6:35 a.m. EDT (1035 GMT). It is not going to dock autonomously however moderately be captured and grappled by the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.
NASA will stream this arrival motion reside, starting at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on Wednesday.
The NG-23 Cygnus will keep connected to the orbiting lab till March 2026, when it should depart to dissipate 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 at present operational ISS cargo craft, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, is totally different. Dragon makes parachute-aided ocean splashdowns, after which it’s recovered, refurbished and reflown.