KENNEDY SPACE CENTER/ CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – The biggest ever Northrop Grumman-built Cygnus Cargo ship is poised for launch from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station (ISS) on a recycled SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket under a commercial resupply services contract with NASA.
NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting liftoff for 6:11 p.m. EDT, Sunday, Sept. 14, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, for this next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the ISS
The mission is dubbed NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23.
It marks the first flight of the Cygnus XL, the larger, more cargo-capable version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft.
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This upgraded Cygnus XL version is 5 feet longer than the prior vesion nd can carry about 2300 lbs more cargo – translating to an increase capacity of about 33%
Overall the Cygnus XL spacecraft is filled with more than 11,000 pounds of supplies.
This counts as the fourth flight for the Falcon 9 1st stage booster tail number B1094.
It previously flew a Starlink mission, Axiom Mission 4 and NASA’s Crew-11.
Following arrival, astronauts aboard the space station will use the Canadarm2 to grapple Cygnus XL on Wednesday, Sept. 17, before robotically installing the spacecraft to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading.
Highlights of space station research and technology demonstrations, facilitated by delivery aboard this Cygnus XL, include materials to produce semiconductor crystals in space and equipment to develop improvements for cryogenic fuel tanks. 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.
The Cygnus XL spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the orbiting laboratory until March before it departs and burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Northrop Grumman has named the spacecraft the S.S. William “Willie” McCool, in honor of the NASA astronaut who perished in 2003 during the space shuttle Columbia accident.
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