NASA has scheduled Northrop Grumman’s next Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch targeted no earlier than 8:49 a.m. EDT (10:49pm AEST) on Wednesday, April 8.
The mission, known as Northrop Grumman CRS-24, will launch a Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA said the spacecraft is carrying about 11,000 pounds of cargo, including science investigations, supplies and equipment for the Expedition 73 crew.
After launch, astronauts aboard the space station are scheduled to use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture Cygnus XL on Friday, April 10, before ground controllers install it on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port to begin unloading cargo.
NASA said research and technology demonstrations aboard the spacecraft include a new module for the Cold Atom Lab for quantum science research; hardware aimed at producing a greater number of therapeutic stem cells; model organisms to study the gut microbiome; and a receiver intended to enhance space weather models used to protect space-based infrastructure such as GPS and radar.
Northrop Grumman has named the spacecraft S.S. Steven R. Nagel, honouring the former NASA astronaut who flew four space shuttle missions and logged more than 720 hours in space, NASA said.
NASA said the spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the station until October, before departing with “several thousand pounds” of trash and burning up during re-entry.
