KENNEDY SPACE CENTER/ CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – The maiden mammoth Northrop Grumman-built Cygnus Cargo ship thundered to orbit from Cape Canaveral bound for launch the International Space Station (ISS) carrying its heaviest payload to date under a commercial resupply services contract with NASA.

Liftoff of the NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX mission took place right on time at 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 critically needed science investigations, supplies, spare parts and equipment to the astronauts and cosmonauts serving aboard 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.

Eight minutes  later the 1st stage nailed a landing back at the Cape at LZ-2 sending screaming sonic booms across the Space Coast and beyond.

This counts as the fourth flight for the Falcon 9 1^st stage booster tail number B1094.

It previously flew a Starlink mission, Axiom Mission 4 and NASA’s Crew-11.

Cygnus separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage 14 and a half minutes after liftoff and deployed its solar power producing arrays

This upgraded Cygnus XL version is 5 feet longer than the prior version and 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

“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,” said Ryan Tinter, vice president 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.”

Cygnus XL is scheduled to be captured at 6:35 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, by the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will operate with assistance from NASA astronaut Zena Cardman.

Following capture, the spacecraft will be installed to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading.

Enjoy our photos taken by the Space UpClose team of Ken Kremer and Jean Wright covering the launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Press Site.

Ken Kremer of Space UpClose was interviewed by WFTV ABC News Orlando about the NG-23 mission

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