Overview
- The Cygnus XL S.S. Steven R. Nagel, which launched Saturday at 7:41 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral, is tracking for a Monday, April 13 Canadarm2 capture by NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams.
- Packed with about 11,000 pounds of cargo, the ship carries a Cold Atom Laboratory upgrade, hardware to scale up therapeutic stem cell production, C. elegans for gut microbiome research, a space weather radio receiver, and the African ClimCam for Earth imaging.
- After capture, Cygnus will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for months of cargo operations, then depart around October to safely burn up while disposing of the station’s trash.
- The mission is the fourth straight Cygnus flown on Falcon 9, and Northrop says NG-25 will also use Falcon 9 as Antares 330 development continues in partnership with Firefly Aerospace.
- The Falcon 9 first stage, booster B1094-7, returned to the new Landing Zone 40 near the launch site, reinforcing SpaceX’s reuse model that helps lower launch costs for ISS resupply.