Cygnus NG-20
Cygnus spacecraft mission to ISS / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NG-20 was the twentieth flight of the Cygnus robotic resupply spacecraft and its seventeenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS). It launched on 30 January 2024.[1][2][3][4] It was contracted to Northrop Grumman under the Commercial Resupply Services II (CRS-2) contract with NASA. The capsule launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Mission type | ISS logistics |
---|---|
Operator | Northrop Grumman |
COSPAR ID | 2024-021A |
SATCAT no. | 58898 |
Mission duration | 118 days, 15 hours and 5 minutes (in progress) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson |
Spacecraft type | Enhanced Cygnus |
Manufacturer |
|
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 30 January 2024, 17:07:15 UTC[1] |
Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5 ♺, B1077.10 |
Launch site | CCSFS SLC-40 |
Contractor | SpaceX |
End of mission | |
Disposal | Deorbited |
Decay date | July 2024 (planned) |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Inclination | 51.66° |
Berthing at the International Space Station | |
Berthing port | Unity nadir |
RMS capture | 1 February 2024, 09:59 UTC |
Berthing date | 1 February 2024, 12:14 UTC |
Time berthed | 116 days, 19 hours and 58 minutes (in progress) |
Cargo | |
Mass | 3,726 kilograms (8,214 lb) |
Pressurised | 3,712 kilograms (8,184 lb) |
Unpressurised | 14 kilograms (31 lb) |
Cygnus NG-20 mission patch |
Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Space Systems) and NASA jointly developed a new space transportation system to provide commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station (ISS). Under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, Orbital ATK designed, acquired, built, and assembled the Cygnus, an advanced spacecraft using a Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) provided by industrial partner Thales Alenia Space and a Service Module based on the Orbital GEOStar satellite bus.[5]
NG-20 is the first launch of a Cygnus spacecraft after the exhaustion of the supply of Antares rockets, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, losing both the Russian rocket engine supplier and the Ukrainian booster stage supplier. The next two Cygnus missions will also use Falcon 9, while subsequent missions will use the next-generation Antares 300 series that is under development, which does not depend on Ukrainian or Russian parts.[6] Cygnus is the only cargo freighter to launch on four different orbital launchers, that is, Antares 100 series, Atlas V, Antares 200 series and Falcon 9 Block 5 rockets.