NASA Sets Coverage for Cygnus XL Departure From ISS

NASA plans to provide live coverage as Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Friday, Oct. 9.

Coverage is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. EDT. Ground controllers will command the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Cygnus XL from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module and position it for release at 12:45 p.m. NASA astronaut Luke Delaney will monitor the operation aboard the station.

The departure concludes the spacecraft’s Commercial Resupply Services-24 mission, which delivered more than 11,000 pounds of supplies, science experiments and other cargo to the orbiting laboratory. Cygnus XL launched April 11 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

After leaving the station, the spacecraft will carry thousands of pounds of disposal items and other unneeded cargo. NASA said Cygnus XL is scheduled to deorbit Sunday, Oct. 11, in a destructive atmospheric re-entry and will burn up. The agency will not provide coverage of that deorbit.