Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft has been installed to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port of the International Space Station. The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24, or Northrop Grumman CRS-24.

Filled with more than 11,000 pounds of research and supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft, carried on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched at 7:41 a.m. EDT on April 11, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission is the second flight of the Cygnus XL, the larger, more cargo-capable version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft.

Cygnus will remain at the space station until October when it departs the orbiting laboratory at which point it will dispose of several thousand pounds of debris through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will harmlessly burn up.

Quelle: NASA