SpaceX launches Northrop Grumman cargo ship to International Space Station

One day after the arrival of a Russian cargo ship, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched an upgraded Northrop Grumman area freighter Sunday, placing the unpiloted spacecraft heading in the right direction for seize by the International Space Station early Wednesday.

On board: greater than 5 tons of wanted spare components, analysis materials and crew provides, together with vacation treats for the station crew.

“The (Cygnus) is packed with consumables, like nitrogen, oxygen, food and toilet parts, and it has a large number of spare parts that are required for systems like, for example, our urine processor,” stated Dina Contella, deputy supervisor of the area station program on the Johnson Space Center.

“We’re stocking up on these items since we were short over the past year, and we’d like to have a good reserve for the future.”

Among the extra mouth-watering objects being delivered “are what I’d call specialties,” Contella stated. “The crew can eat these during any of the upcoming holidays or at any time really, but these are foods like clams, oysters, crab, roast turkey and smoked salmon, plus treats like candies, cookies and ice cream.”

“We also have a high school breakfast competition food called … shakshuka scramble. It’s based on a popular dish throughout North Africa and the Middle East made of eggs cooked in spicy sauce.”

Mounted atop pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Falcon 9’s first stage engines thundered to life at 6:11 p.m. EDT, producing 1.7 million kilos of thrust to push the rocket up into the early night sky on a northeasterly trajectory matching the area station’s orbit.

After powering out of the thick decrease environment, the primary stage separated, reversed course and flew itself again to a spectacular touchdown on the Space Force station to chalk up SpaceX’s 67th Florida landing and its 505th profitable booster restoration general.

The Falcon 9’s second stage, in the meantime, put the Cygnus into the deliberate preliminary orbit and launched it to fly by itself 14-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. If all goes effectively, the spacecraft will meet up with the area station early Wednesday for seize by the lab’s robotic arm.

Berthing will come 4 days after a Russian Progress cargo ship, launched Thursday from Kazakhstan, docked on the lab’s aft port, bringing propellant, a brand new Russian spacesuit and different wanted provides to the outpost.

Sunday’s launch was the third of at the least 4 SpaceX flights bought by Northrop Grumman whereas the corporate develops a brand new booster of its personal. And it was the primary flight of a Cygnus XL, so named as a result of the spacecraft has been lengthened to permit it to hold extra cargo to the area station.

“We’ve been partnering with Northrop Grumman on this update, and we’re excited that Northrop is ready to deliver this incredibly beneficial increase in capacity,” Contella stated. “It’s about 1.6 meters (5 feet) longer, and it carries about 2,600 additional pounds more cargo.”

NASA pays for cargo supply flights utilizing Cygnus spacecraft and SpaceX’s Dragon. To date, SpaceX has efficiently carried out 32 Dragon resupply missions, whereas Northrop Grumman has launched 21 profitable flights. Both firms suffered one in-flight failure every early within the business resupply program.