WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Northrop Grumman’s next NASA resupply services mission to the International Space Station is targeted for launch at 3:43 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 14. Live coverage of the launch and briefings will begin at 3:15 p.m., on NASA Television and the agency’s website. 

The company’s 13th commercial resupply services mission using its Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch on its Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

On Feb. 9, Northrop Grumman scrubbed its Antares launch after off-nominal readings from a ground support sensor. The Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft remain healthy.

Loaded with approximately 7,500 pounds of research, crew supplies, and hardware,  the Cygnus spacecraft, dubbed the SS Robert H. Lawrence, will arrive at the space station Sunday, Feb. 16 at about 5:11 a.m. NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan will grapple Cygnus and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir will be acting as a backup. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port.

NASA TV coverage of the spacecraft’s arrival will begin at 2:30 a.m., and installation coverage will begin at 6 a.m.

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until May 11, when it will depart the orbiting laboratory. The Saffire-IV experiment will be conducted within Cygnus after it departs the station prior to deorbit. During its deorbit, it also will dispose of several tons of trash during a fiery reentry into Earth’s atmosphere May 25.

Media registration for the launch and associated activities is closed. The prelaunch news conference and What’s on Board briefing took place on Feb. 8 and can be viewed online:

• Northrop Grumman’s CRS-13 Mission: Prelaunch News Conference
• Northrop Grumman’s CRS-13 Mission: What’s on Board

Cargo resupply from U.S. companies ensures a national capability to deliver critical science research to the space station, significantly increasing NASA’s ability to conduct new investigations at the only laboratory in space.

Learn more about the Northrop Grumman mission by going to the mission webpage at:

https://www.nasa.gov/northropgrumman

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SOURCE NASA