Northrop Grumman Launching 20th ISS Resupply Mission Aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

Northrop Grumman’s 20th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for launch on Jan. 29 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying over 200 payloads under ISS National Laboratory sponsorship. 

According to the ISS NL’s launch announcement, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, a mainstay in previous space station resupply missions, will carry the payload using for the first time a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The NG-20 Cygnus spacecraft was named SS Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson in honor of the late NASA astronaut.

The NG-20 mission carries more than 900 pounds of supplies, research and technology materials for scientific space tests and demonstrations, ISS NL said Thursday.

The payload includes a pair of robotic arms, a new optical fiber production method and an artificial retina-making project. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which launched a new edge computing system for the ISS in February 2021, is also tapping NG-20 to test an updated version of its HPE Spaceborne Computer.

NASA ordered 12 additional ISS resupply missions from Northrop Grumman and SpaceX in March 2022, with six missions assigned to each company under a contract good up to 2026.