Credits: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
NASA and commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman are targeting 8:31 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, August 1, for the launch of the company’s 19th resupply mission to the International Space Station from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Live launch coverage will begin at 8 p.m. and will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website, with prelaunch events starting Sunday, July 30.
Filled with more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch on the company’s Antares rocket from Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. It will arrive at the space station Friday, August 4.
NASA coverage of rendezvous and capture will begin at 4:30 a.m. followed by installation coverage at 7:30 a.m. NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will act as backup. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port.
Highlights of space station research facilitated by delivery aboard this Cygnus are:
- The final iteration of a series of spacecraft fire protection experiments
- A new potable water dispenser that provides hot water and improved sanitization
- Neural cells that will be cultured into 3D cell models for gene therapy testing
- A probe that measures plasma density of the upper atmosphere
- A memory card that contains creative works from students around the world
The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until October, when it will depart the orbiting laboratory.
Northrop Grumman named the Cygnus spacecraft the S.S. Laurel Clark after late NASA astronaut Laurel Clark. Clark was a crew member of NASA’s STS-107 mission aboard space shuttle Columbia, successfully conducting 80 experiments while logging 15 days in space. She and her fellow STS-107 crew members tragically lost their lives when Columbia did not survive its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.