A few hours ago Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to its destination. This is its 11th official mission, called NG-11 but also CRS NG-11, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA, the second for Northrop Grumman Corporation after completing the acquisition of Orbital ATK.

This Cygnus spacecraft was named “Roger Chaffee” after one of the victims of the Apollo 1 command module tragedy that happened on January 27, 1967. This Cygnus cargo spacecraft carries a total of 3,446 kg (7,575 lbs.) of cargo, including 1,569 kg (3,459 lbs.) of various types of supplies for the crew, 628 kg (1,384 lbs.) of hardware and the rest in equipment and various components. The cargo includes various CubeSat-class nanosatellites and experiments needed for some of the scientific research carried out on the International Space Station.

For this mission, Northrop Grumman completed loading operations around 24 hours before the launch, while in previous missions the Cygnus spacecraft was fully loaded about four days before launch. The new procedure allows to load on the Cygnus cargoes such as the live rodents in the Animal Enclosure Module (AEM-X) later than everything else so that they spend only the really necessary time in their module. Medical examinations on rodents are common on the International Space Station, in fact this is the Rodent Research-12, Tetanus Antibody Response by B cells in Space (TARBIS) investigation which will test the effects of their life in microgravity on their immune system.

Among the experiments on board there’s the Thermal Amine Scrubber, one of the experimental systems related to resource recycling, in this case a test of a new method to remove the carbon dioxide in the International Space Station’s air.

Communication systems are crucial for all types of space missions, the Space-to-Ground Transmitter-Receiver-Controller (SGTRC) is spare hardware for transmitting and receiving video but also scientific data.

The astronauts’ health is always under control and the tests are continuously improved. The new systems included the Bio-Analyzer, a platform for testing body fluids developed by the Canadian Space Agency, and the Vascular Aging survey, focused on the problem of astronauts health deterioration during long periods spent in microgravity.

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to reach the International Space Station next Suturday to be captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm around 9.30 am UTC. If there are no problems, the day after the arrival of the Cygnus the crew will open the hatch and start unloading its cargo.