Yesterday, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft, launched last Saturday, April 11, reached the International Space Station and was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Astronaut Jack Hathaway, assisted by his colleague Chris Williams, conducted the slow maneuver to move the Cygnus until it docked with the Station’s Unity module after about two hours.
Soon, the International Space Station crew is scheduled to open the Cygnus spacecraft’s hatch, and at that point, the cargo will be slowly brought to the Station. The increased payload capacity of the XL version of this space freighter allows it to carry approximately 1,500 kilograms more than the previous version. This means it can send more supplies, more equipment, and scientific experiments on a single mission.
The NG-24 mission is almost accomplished because the Cygnus spacecraft can’t land, and when it comes back into Earth’s atmosphere, it will disintegrate. For this reason, it will be used to get rid of components that failed or that can’t be used any longer on the International Space Station: all of that will be loaded on the Cygnus and will disintegrate along with it.
The Cygnus called S.S. Steven R. Nagel is scheduled to leave the International Space Station in March 2026. In these cases, a tentative date is decided for the departure of a cargo spacecraft which, however, can be modified because it also depends on other tasks with higher priority. Even after departing the Station, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft can still be used to conduct experiments in space using automated systems. For this reason, it can spend considerable time in orbit before reentering Earth’s atmosphere.
Northrop Grumman’s plans for its next resupply mission are still sketchy. Mission NG-22 is still postponed to a date yet to be established due to damage sustained by the cargo spacecraft during transport to Cape Canaveral. It’s possible that, in the end, the company and NASA will proceed first with the NG-25 mission, scheduled for next year. The next Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft mission could be the first on the new version of the Antares rocket. This depends on the rocket’s development schedule and NASA’s requests for Northrop Grumman’s next launch schedule.
