Falcon 9 CRS NG‑24 launched to ISS

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched Northrop Grumman’s NG-24 cargo mission to the International Space Station on Saturday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (nasa.gov) The rocket lifted off at 7:41 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on April 11 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after weather pushed the mission back from April 10. (nasa.gov) The payload is Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft, carrying about 11,000 pounds of crew supplies, science gear, and technology demonstrations for the orbiting laboratory. (nasa.gov) Cargo flights like this keep the station running between astronaut launches. Cygnus brings food, equipment, and experiments up, then later leaves filled with trash and burns up during reentry over Earth’s atmosphere. (nasa.gov) This mission also shows how the station’s supply chain now crosses company lines: Northrop Grumman built the spacecraft, SpaceX provided the rocket, and NASA bought the delivery under its Commercial Resupply Services program. (spacenews.com) Among the research on board are a module for quantum science, hardware aimed at producing more therapeutic stem cells, studies of the gut microbiome, and a receiver designed to improve space weather models used to protect systems such as Global Positioning System satellites and radar. (nasa.gov) The spacecraft is named the S.S. Steven R. Nagel, honoring the former NASA astronaut who flew four space shuttle missions and spent 723 hours in space. (nasa.gov) SpaceX said the Falcon 9 first-stage booster was making its seventh flight, and the company’s published mission timeline called for a landing at Landing Zone 40 less than eight minutes after liftoff. (spacex.com) NASA said Cygnus is scheduled to reach the station on Monday, April 13, when astronauts Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture it at 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. (nasa.gov) If that timeline holds, the launch imagery that spread online Saturday will give way to the quieter part of the job on Monday: unloading another station freighter, one bag and one experiment at a time. (nasa.gov)