On a sunny Sunday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched Northrop Grumman’s next Cygnus mission (NG-23) to the International Space Station. Liftoff was 6:11 p.m. ET This mission will be the first flight of the Cygnus XL, the larger, more cargo-capable version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft. Northrop Grumman named S.S. William “Willie” McCool after one of the NASA astronauts who died in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident. Photos are captured by Satnews unless otherwise annotaded.
This is the 23rd cargo effort that Northrop Grumman has flown to the ISS for NASA, and is the first Cygnus launch since August 2024, when NG-21 took flight.
NG-22 was supposed to launch in January of this year but was delayed until June due to avionics issues. In late March, NASA announced that NG-22 had been called off, due to damage that occurred to Cygnus while in; transport to the launch site.
This is the fourth flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Ax-4, Crew-11, and a Starlink mission.
Following stage separation, Falcon 9 landed on Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX plans Sunday launch of Cygnus CRS-2 NG-23 (S.S. William “Willie” C. McCool)
SpaceX is targeting Sunday, September 14 for a Falcon 9 launch of Northrop Grumman’s next Cygnus mission (NG-23) to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 6:11 p.m. ET, with a backup launch opportunity available on Monday, September 15 at 5:49 p.m. ET. This mission will be the first flight of the Cygnus XL, the larger, more cargo-capable version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about 20 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch on X @SpaceX.
According to weather officials, there’s a 75% chance of favorable weather conditions at the time of the launch. Officials are monitoring weather conditions with concerns related to Cumulus Cloud Rule, Surface Electric Fields Rule, Lightning Rule. The forecast calls for a temperature of 79°F, light rain, 6% cloud cover, a wind speed of 14mph and 0.89in of rain.
The spacecraft is filled with more than 11,000 pounds of supplies. The Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft to be carried on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The astronauts aboard the space station will use the Canadarm2 to grapple Cygnus XL on Wednesday, September 17, before robotically installing the spacecraft to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading.
This is the fourth flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Ax-4, Crew-11, and a Starlink mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.