Cygnus spacecraft scheduled to lift off at 9:38 p.m. tonight

Photo Courtesy NASA

NASA’s commercial cargo provider, Northrop Grumman, is set to launch its 14th contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station no earlier than Thursday, Oct. 1, at 9:38 p.m. EDT from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. A Cygnus cargo spacecraft, named the SS Kalpana Chawla after the former astronaut, will launch aboard an Antares rocket from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops. 

Cargo will include nearly 8,000 pounds of crew supplies, hardware and materials for scientific investigations, including the Plant Habitat-02 investigation which will study radish growth in space, the Onco Selectors investigation which will use microgravity to identify cancer therapies, the Ammonia Electro-Oxidation investigation which will study a potential water recovery system, and the Universal Waste Management System – a new space toilet. Data from some of these investigations could prove valuable for future crewed Artemis missions to the Moon or missions to Mars. In addition, the cargo will include the ISS Experience EVA Camera, which will be used to film crew activities – such as a spacewalk – and Earth views in virtual reality

Weather permitting, the launch may be visible to the public in some areas on the East Coast. The Wallops Visitor Center will be closed to the public, but the launch will be streamed live on a variety of platforms, including NASA TV and the Wallops UStream, Facebook and Twitter sites. Live launch coverage will begin on NASA TV at 9 p.m.

WESR will carry the countdown live beginning at 9:05 p.m..

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