Cygnus NG-21

NG-21

Artists' impression of an Extended Cygnus; the spacecraft type to be used in the mission.
Mission type	ISS logistics
Operator	Northrop Grumman
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	S.S.
Spacecraft type	Enhanced Cygnus
Manufacturer	Northrop Grumman Thales Alenia
Start of mission
Launch date	August 2024 (planned)[1]
Rocket	Falcon 9, B10xx.x
Launch site	KSC LC-39A or CCSFS SLC-40
Contractor	SpaceX
End of mission
Disposal	Deorbited
Decay date	2025 (planned)
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Inclination	51.66°
Berthing at the International Space Station
Berthing port	Unity nadir
Commercial Resupply Services ← SpaceX CRS-30 SpaceX CRS-31 →   Cygnus flights ← NG-20 NG-22 →

Cygnus NG-21 is the twenty-first planned flight of the Cygnus robotic resupply spacecraft and its eighteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS). It is planned to launch in August 2024.^[1][2][3][4] It is contracted to Northrop Grumman under the Commercial Resupply Services II (CRS-2) contract with NASA. The capsule is scheduled to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Innovation 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-21 is the second 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. A Northrop Grumman replacement for Antares will later come about for later missions. The next Cygnus missions will also use Falcon 9, and subsequent mission will use the next-generation Antares 300 series that does not depend on Ukrainian or Russian parts.^[6]

History

Cygnus NG-21 is the tenth Cygnus mission under the Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract.

Production and integration of Cygnus spacecraft are performed in Dulles, Virginia. The Cygnus service module is mated with the pressurized cargo module at the launch site, and mission operations are conducted from control centers in Dulles, Virginia and Houston, Texas.^[5]

Spacecraft

This will be the sixteenth flight of the Enhanced-sized Cygnus PCM.^[3][7]

Manifest

The Cygnus spacecraft will be loaded with cargo and supplies before its launch.^[8]

See also

• Uncrewed spaceflights to the International Space Station

References

External links

• Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply, NASA page

• v
• t
• e

Cygnus spacecraft

• COTS
• CRS
• Uncrewed spaceflights to the ISS

Launch vehicles

• Antares
• Atlas V
• Falcon 9 Block 5

Operators

• Orbital
• Orbital ATK
• Northrop Grumman

Past missions

• Test flight (Apr 2013)
• Orb-D1 (Sep 2013)
• Orb-1 (Jan 2014)
• Orb-2 (Jul 2014)
• Orb-3† (Oct 2014)
• OA-4 (Dec 2015)
• OA-6 (Mar 2016)
• OA-5 (Oct 2016)
• OA-7 (Apr 2017)
• OA-8E (Nov 2017)
• OA-9E (May 2018)
• NG-10 (Nov 2018)
• NG-11 (Apr 2019)
• NG-12 (Nov 2019)
• NG-13 (Feb 2020)
• NG-14 (Oct 2020)
• NG-15 (Feb 2021)
• NG-16 (Aug 2021)
• NG-17 (Feb 2022)
• NG-18 (Nov 2022)
• NG-19 (Aug 2023)
• NG-20 (Jan 2024)

Future missions

• NG-21 (Jun 2024)

• Signs † indicate launch failures.