SpaceX to launch new, improved Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL resupply ship to the area station – Spaceflight Now

The subsequent cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station is launching Sunday and can function a brand new iteration of the Cygnus spacecraft from Northrop Grumman.

The mission, NASA’s NG-23, is the newest flight fulfilling NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract with Northrop Grumman. The Cygnus XL spacecraft making its debut is able to carrying 33 % extra cargo than the earlier model of the Cygnus car.

SpaceX is scheduled to launch the cargo craft atop a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:11 a.m. EDT (2211 UTC).

Spaceflight Now could have stay protection starting about 90 minutes previous to liftoff.

It would be the fourth flight of the Falcon 9 first stage booster, B1094, which entered service in April this 12 months, beforehand launching the Starlink 12-10, Axiom Mission 4 and Crew-11 missions.

Rather less than eight minutes after liftoff, B1094 will return to Cape Canaveral for a landing at Landing Zone 4. This would be the 14th booster restoration at that website and the 505th touchdown for SpaceX thus far.

The Cygnus will separate from the Falcon 9 higher stage 14 and a half minutes into the flight to start its solo journey to the ISS. The cargo freighter is scheduled to be captured and berthed to the area station on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 6:35 a.m. EDT (1035 UTC).

Cygnus evolves

The debut of the Cygnus XL comes on the twenty third flight of a Cygnus spacecraft thus far. It’s designed to hold 33 % extra cargo to the area station than earlier iterations of the car.

“It’s really critical because we can deliver significantly more science as well as we’re able to deliver a lot more cargo prelaunch, really trying to drive down the cost per kilogram to NASA,” stated Ryan Tinter, vp of Civil Space Systems for Northrop Grumman.

“As we’re setting up for the future of commercial [low Earth orbit], we’re trying to make sure that we are ready with these kind of commercial and economic options to get a lot of capability and a lot of equipment into space.”

This explicit flight options greater than 11,000 kilos (4,990 kg) of meals, science and provides. The spacecraft is about to remain docked to the area station nominally till round March 2025.

Because of its elevated measurement, Cygnus can be briefly unberthed from the area station utilizing the outpost’s robotic arm through the strategy and docking of a crewed Russian Soyuz craft on Nov. 27.

“Cygnus is berthed to node one nadir and that’s close to the corridor for Soyuz rendezvous,” Dina Contella, the deputy supervisor of NASA’s ISS Program, defined throughout a prelaunch briefing. “So, when Soyuz is coming into dock at the SUV MRM (Mini-Research Module) one port, we’d like for safety’s sake to unberth Cygnus and hold it away from the Russian segment.”

Alternatively, mission managers may determine to fill the module with as a lot trash as attainable and launch it earlier than the arrival of Soyuz MS-28, she stated.