Watch SpaceX launch Northrop Grumman’s biggest-ever cargo spacecraft on its 1st mission

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 for NASA. NG-23 is the first Cygnus launch since August 2024, when NG-21 took flight.

a white and black rocket lifts off on a bright plume with an orange glow, set against a blue sky with wispy white clouds. — SpaceX launched Northrop Grumman’s new “Cygnus XL” cargo ship on its debut mission to the International Space Station on Sunday (Sept. 14). (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA)

NG-22 was supposed to follow in January of this year but was delayed to June due to avionics issues. Then, in late March, NASA announced that NG-22 had been called off, as a result of damage the Cygnus incurred during transport to the launch site.

NG-23 marks the debut of the Cygnus XL, a larger and more capable version of the veteran freighter. The previous iteration hauled about 8,500 (3,855 kilograms) pounds of cargo to the ISS, but Cygnus XL is taking 11,000 pounds (4,990 kg) up on this trip.

Among the supplies packed aboard the freighter are “materials to produce semiconductor crystals in space and equipment to develop improvements for cryogenic fuel tanks,” NASA officials wrote in a statement. “The spacecraft also will deliver a specialized UV light system to prevent the growth of microbe communities that form in water systems and supplies to produce pharmaceutical crystals that could treat cancer and other diseases.”

NG-23’s Cygnus XL — which Northrop Grumman named S.S. William “Willie” McCool after one of the NASA astronauts who died in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident — is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday (Sept. 17) at 6:35 a.m. EDT (1035 GMT). It will not dock autonomously but rather be captured and grappled by the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.

NASA will stream this arrival action live, beginning at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on Wednesday.

a cargo vehicle separates from the upper stage of the rocket that launched it into Earth orbit

Northrop Grumman’s NG-23 Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. “Willie” McCool, separates from he upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched it into low Earth orbit. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)

The NG-23 Cygnus will stay attached to the orbiting lab until March 2026, when it will depart to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Russia’s Progress freighter — one of which just arrived at the ISS on Saturday (Sept. 13) — is similarly disposable, but the third currently operational ISS cargo craft, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, is different. Dragon makes parachute-aided ocean splashdowns, after which it is recovered, refurbished and reflown.