Sept. 14 (UPI) — SpaceX launched the latest in a series of cargo freighter missions to the International Space Station Sunday evening from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The Northrop Grumman NG-23 Cygnus XL was launched at 6:11 p.m. EDT into low-Earth orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, shuttling supplies and experimental equipment to the ISS.
The mission, hauling 11,000 pounds of cargo, is carrying “materials to produce semiconductor crystals in space and equipment to develop improvements for cryogenic fuel tanks,” a statement from NASA said.
“The spacecraft also will deliver a specialized UV light system to prevent the growth of microbe communities that form in the water systems and supplied to produce pharmaceutical crystals that could treat cancer and other diseases,” the statement continued.
The Cygnus, which was also carrying food and other routine supplies for the ISS crew, is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday where it will stay attached until March, 2026.
It will then detach and begin a descent, eventually incinerating as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere, along with the refuse it will be transporting from ISS astronauts.
The craft joins Russia’s Progress freighter, also disposable, which arrived at the ISS on Saturday.
Eight minutes after launch, the first stage booster rocket that supplied fuel for the Cygnus mission, landed safely back at Cape Canaveral Space Forcer Station, creating a sonic boom that rattled Brevard County.
NASA named the Cygnus NG-23 S.S. William “Willie” McCool to honor one of the astronauts who died in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle accident.