Northrop Grumman’s new Cygnus XL spacecraft has been installed to the International Space Station. The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23.
Filled with more than 11,000 pounds of research and supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft, carried on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched at 6:11 p.m. EDT on Sept. 14, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission will be the first flight of the Cygnus XL, the larger, more cargo-capable version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft.
Cygnus will remain at the space station until spring when it departs the orbiting laboratory at which point it will dispose of several thousand pounds of debris through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will harmlessly burn up.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @NASASpaceOps and @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.