Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft is pictured attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm, moments after NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick maneuvered the robotic arm to capture the spacecraft ahead of installation to the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. Credit: NASA TV
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft is pictured attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm, moments after NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick maneuvered the robotic arm to capture the spacecraft ahead of installation to the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. Credit: NASA TV

NASA’s coverage is underway for the installation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, X, Facebook, and the agency’s website.

At 3:11 a.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, with NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps acting as backup, captured Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft using the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm as the station was flying about 260 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean.

The spacecraft is carrying 8,200 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory for Northrop Grumman’s 21st commercial resupply mission for NASA.

The mission launched at 11:02 a.m. Aug. 4 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Cygnus will remain at the space station until January when it departs the orbiting laboratory at which point it will dispose of several thousand pounds of debris through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will harmlessly burn up.


Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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