SpaceX To Launch NG-20 To ISS On Tuesday (updated) – Talk of Titusville

A Northrup Grumman Cygnus at the International Space Station Photo courtesy of Northrup Grumman

On Monday, January 29th, update: Tuesday, January 30th SpaceX will launch Northrup-Grummans Cygnus CRS-2 towards the International Space Station aboard a Falcon 9. This launch will be the 20th resupply mission carried out as part of NGs Commercial Resupply contract with NASA, and will ferry supplies for the stations crew, equipment, as well as new scientific experiments to the orbiting outpost.

The launch is scheduled for 12:07 PM EST with an instantaneous window from Cape Canaverals SLC-40. Approximately eight minutes after launching, the booster used for this mission will return to the Cape to land at LZ-1, SpaceXs landing facility located about 5.6 miles to the south of the launch pad.

With a capacity of about 5,000 kg, Cygnus is a pressurized multi-purpose logistics module with about 36 cubic meters of interior volume that can be loaded with supplies. Cygnus is compatible with multiple launch vehicles including Northrop Grummans Antares 330 and Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV) currently in development, and has launched on ULAs Atlas V, Antares vehicles and SpaceXs Falcon 9. The module is also capable of reboosting the ISS to a higher orbit, but it is not known at this time if that capability will be utilized by NG-20.

NASA released information regarding the experiments that will be aboard Cygnus for ISS astronauts to perform:

NASAs Biological and Physical Sciences Division(BPS) is sending three experiments and equipment on this mission:

The flight trajectory for the NG-20 mission is to the northeast. The booster will travel southwest to return to the landing zone at Cape Canaveral.

BoosterB1077will fly its tenth mission for this flight. B1077 has successfully completed nine previous launches and landings, and was first used for the Crew-5 mission.

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SpaceX To Launch NG-20 To ISS On Tuesday (updated) - Talk of Titusville