Watch On
The first mission of Northrop Grumman’s big new cargo spacecraft is nearly over.
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The Cygnus XL launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sept. 14, carrying about 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) of scientific gear and other supplies toward the ISS.
That big cargo load explains the new freighter’s name: Earlier versions of Cygnus hauled about 8,500 pounds (3,856 kg) to the orbiting lab.
Cygnus XL had a bit of a hiccup on its debut mission, suffering an engine glitch on its way to the station. The spacecraft — named the S.S. William “Willie” McCool, after one of the seven astronauts who died in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident — overcame the problem, however, arriving at the ISS on Sept. 18, a day later than originally planned.
The orbiting outpost’s Canadarm2 grappled Cygnus XL that day, berthing it to the Unity module. The big robotic arm will be at work on Thursday as well, removing S.S. William “Willie” McCool from Unity and then releasing it “into Earth orbit for a fiery, but safe reentry above the South Pacific Ocean two days later,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Tuesday (March 10).
Cygnus is one of four robotic cargo spacecraft that service the ISS these days, along with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, Russia’s Progress vehicle and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) HTV-X. Dragon is reusable, but the other three burn up in Earth’s atmosphere when their missions are over.
HTV-X — a more advanced version of the Japanese HTV freighter — just wrapped up its first-ever visit to the orbiting lab, departing on March 6 after a four-month stay. That cargo craft will remain in orbit as a free flyer for the next three months or so, hosting a suite of JAXA science experiments.
