The International Space Station (ISS) is about to get a visit from a familiar guest.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft will dock at the station on Friday (Aug. 4), at 5:54 a.m. EDT (0954 GMT). This won’t be a social visit, however. NG-19 Cygnus, also known as the SS Laurel Clark, named for the fallen space shuttle Columbia astronaut, will be hauling 8,200 pounds (3,700 kilograms) of cargo for the ISS.
The whole rendezvous will be viewable live via NASA TV starting at 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT). Watch it live here courtesy of the agency.
Related: Antares rocket makes its final launch, sending cargo to the International Space Station
An image taken during a previous meeting between the ISS and the Cygnus cargo craft. (Image credit: NASA)
Among the cargo will be a new potable water dispenser (PWD) which will provide the ISS crew with hot water and improved sanitization and a memory card that contains creative works from students around the world. Cygnus will also deliver the equipment needed for several cutting-edge ISS research projects, including human brain cells that will be that will be cultured into 3D cell models for gene therapy testing, a probe to measure plasma density over Earth and the final version of a spacecraft fire protection experiment.
Once Cygnus reaches the ISS, the cargo craft will be grabbed by the station’s robotic arm operated by NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg, with fellow NASA astronaut Frank Rubio acting as backup. Following this capture, the craft will be installed at the Unity module on the port of the ISS that faces Earth.
The Cygnus cargo craft will take 2.5 days to travel from Earth to the ISS. It was launched atop Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket on Tuesday (Aug. 1), at 8:31 p.m. EDT (0031 GMT), lifting off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
This was the 19th commercial resupply mission from Northrop Grumman and represented the final planned launch of the current version of the Antares rocket, the Antares 230 series. The rocket will be replaced by a newer Antares model at some point in 2024.
Cygnus craft are currently used by Northrop Grumman on resupply missions to the ISS as part of the second Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract. Since 2014, Northrop Grumman says that Cygnus has carried over 70,000 pounds (31,500 kg) of critical cargo to the space station.
During this current mission, Cygnus will stay docked at the ISS until Oct. 2023.
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