SpaceX launches Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus freighter to ISS
SpaceX today successfully launched Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus freighter with more than five tons of cargo, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The two fairing halves completed their 3rd and 6th flights respectively. Cygnus is expected to be berthed to ISS using the robot arm on September 24, 2025. This is also the first flight of the stretched version of Cygnus, capable of carrying more cargo.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
118 SpaceX
53 China
13 Russia
12 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 118 to 92. China also had its own launch scheduled for this evening, but no information about it has yet been released.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX today successfully launched Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus freighter with more than five tons of cargo, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The two fairing halves completed their 3rd and 6th flights respectively. Cygnus is expected to be berthed to ISS using the robot arm on September 24, 2025. This is also the first flight of the stretched version of Cygnus, capable of carrying more cargo.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
118 SpaceX
53 China
13 Russia
12 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 118 to 92. China also had its own launch scheduled for this evening, but no information about it has yet been released.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Worth noting that this Cygnus is named the S.S. William “Willie” C. McCool, after the mission pilot for STS-107 in 2003, tragically killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed on reentry.
Northrop, a little to my surprise, has a dedicated mission page for this, detailing not only McCool’s biography, but also a nice render which shows how much larger the new extended (XL) Cygnus is over the previous version: https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/space/missions/nasa-commercial-resupply-mission-ng-23
I was checking on when Cygnus returns to the Antares launcher, or should I say, switches to the new Antares 300 series launcher being developed by Northrop and Firefly, since right now it’s forced to use Falcon 9’s. It appears it has one more launch on Falcon 9 — the next Cygnus mission, NG-24, scheduled for early 2026. The mission after that, NG-25, is scheduled to launch on the Antares 300 — presumably, if there are no further development delays.
I note that the Antares 300 must have more oomph than the previous Antares, since the new Cygnus is heftier than the old model. But even so, the new Cygnus does not strain the Falcon 9, since it was able to do an RTLS landing.
With all the talk about Starship, Vulcan, and New Glenn, it is easy to think of the F9 as “little”. It isn’t, and it’s big brother Falcon Heavy is right up there with the Vulcan and New Glen heavy-lift wanabees!