Northrop Grumman’s 16th contracted commercial resupply mission to ISS launched

….at 6:01 PM EDT from Wallops Island Virginia 8-10-21!

Under sunny skies with mild winds the NG-16 mission liftoff occurred at 6:01 PM EDT from launch complex OA at Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport called MARS Tuesday August 10th. The Cygnus cargo spacecraft will stay docked at the ISS Unity module for about three months.

After departing it will perform secondary mission objectives like KREPE a demonstration of an affordable thermal protection system to protect spacecraft when reentering Earths atmosphere. The Cygnus craft is named SS Ellison Onizuka who lost his life on his second NASA mission on space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Heading to space Cygnus is packed with 8,200 pounds of supplies, research, technology demonstrations, hardware and more. Payloads being delivered to the space station are: Dust to Dorm or RRP Redwire Regolith Print demonstrating 3D printing using a material simulating regolith for future habitats.

Drugs for maintaining muscles in zero gravity. Two phase thermal management systems for power generation and dissipating heat. Four Bed CO2 scrubbers to remove carbon dioxide. An ESA European Space Agency slime mold experiment for ten to eighteen year old students to study how this mold changes and learns in zero g’s.

The spacecraft will have 3,076 pounds of crew supplies, 2,346 pounds of science investigations, 33 pounds of space walk equipment, 2286 pounds of vehicle hardware and 98 pounds of computer resources.

A beautiful on time launch today and wishing Northrop Grumman much success as Cygnus heads to the ISS.

Article and Photo Credit: Scott Schilke spacenews.lu & space-news.es