#grummans

The debut mission of Northrop Grumman’s new jumbo cargo spacecraft didn’t go off without a hitch. The company’s first “Cygnus XL” freighter suffered a thruster issue in orbit early Tuesday morning (Sept. 16), two days after launching toward the International Space Station (ISS) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. As a result, “the Cygnus XL will not arrive to the space station on Wednesday, Sept. 17,…

SpaceX launched Northrop Grumman’s new “Cygnus XL” cargo ship on its debut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday evening (Sept. 14). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Cygnus freighter lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:11 p.m. EDT (2211 GMT). The mission is known as NG-23, because it is the 23rd cargo effort that Northrop Grumman flies to the ISS…