NASA Says Northrop Grumman Cygnus Cargo Ship Departs From ISS to Conduct Experiment in Orbit

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship NG-16 departed the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday after three months in orbit.

The resupply ship was undocked at 11:01 EST by an order from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston. Russian news agency TASS said that Matthias Maurer, a European Space Agency astronaut onboard the International Space Station, supervised the undocking.

Cygnus will spend roughly a month in orbit demonstrating its heat protection system before firing engines on Dec. 15 to re-enter the atmosphere. The spaceship, which is carrying garbage from the International Space Station, will burn up Earth's atmosphere.

Cygnus Cargo Ship Departs ISS After Three Months in Orbit, NASA

Cygnus brought over 7,500 pounds of discarded cargo, SpaceRef said. It will stay aloft for around four weeks to complete the mission's secondary phase.

Following its departure, Cygnus will carry out secondary missions, including the Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE). This cargo will accompany Cygnus during re-entry and will be used to test a thermal protection system for spacecraft and their contents during re-entry in the Earth's atmosphere, which is difficult to mimic in base simulations.

In a statement, NASA noted that this new experiment will "show a thermal protection system for spacecraft and their cargo during re-entry in Earth's atmosphere."

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About Cygnus

Cygnus docked with the ISS on Aug. 12 with its largest cargo shipment yet, weighing in at four tons. The S.S. Ellison Onizuka was named after the first Asian American astronaut, Ellison Onizuka, who died in the Challenger shuttle accident in 1986, and six other astronauts.

The mission delivered more than 8,200 pounds (3,720 kilograms) of supplies, equipment, and experiments to the station, making it the largest cargo delivery by a Cygnus spacecraft to date. New hardware, a carbon dioxide scrubber to ensure breathing air and equipment for the station's enhanced solar arrays were among the items delivered. A slime mold (a brainless blob) and two payloads were used to study human muscle cells in orbit.

Since 2014, Northrop Grumman has launched 15 operational resupply missions to the space station. Orbital Sciences and Orbital ATK, eventually bought by Northrop Grumman, were in charge of previous flights.

Northrop Grumman's vice president for civil and commercial space and tactical space systems, Steve Krein, said in a statement (via Space.com) that "the Cygnus system has grown from being merely a cargo transportation service to a high performing scientific platform." "We are continuing to expand these capabilities, including the installation of environmental control systems and other upgrades to support the lunar orbiting Habitation and Logistics Outpost, or HALO," says the statement.

The HALO project is a dwelling module for future Artemis astronauts for NASA's proposed Gateway space station near the moon. Northrop Grumman is designing the HALO module based on its Cygnus expertise.

A SpaceX Supply Dragon spacecraft, scheduled to fly in late December will be the next U.S. cargo ship to visit the space station.