NASA is preparing to launch Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo ship on April 8 to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the agency said. The mission is known as NASA Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 (CRS-24) and will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 on the space station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
After launch, astronauts aboard the ISS will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture the Swan and docking the spacecraft into the Earth-facing port of the Unity module to unload the spacecraft. It will remain on the ISS until October. It is the twenty-fourth Northrop Grumman spacecraft built to transport cargo to the ISS under a contract with NASA.
In addition to food, supplies and equipment for the crew, Cygnus will carry research to the space station, including a new module to advance quantum science, which could improve computing and contribute to the search for dark matter, and equipment to produce more therapeutic stem cells to treat blood disorders and cancer. Cygnus will also carry model organisms to study the gut microbiome and a receptor that can improve space weather models that protect critical space infrastructure such as GPS and radar.
Each station resupply mission conducts scientific research in biology and biotechnology, earth and space sciences, physical sciences, and technology development and demonstration. Replenishment of cargo from American companies ensures the country’s ability to deliver scientific research to the space station, which increases NASA’s ability to conduct new research on board humanity’s laboratory in space.
