Watch private Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft leave the International Space Station today

Private Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft departs the International Space Station after 6-month stay (video)

Northrop Grumman's robotic Cygnus XL spacecraft departed the International Space Station today (Oct. 9) after a six-month stay.

Northrop Grumman's uncrewed Cygnus XL freighter was released by the station's huge <u>Canadarm2</u> robotic arm today at 12:44 p.m. EDT (1644 GMT), while the duo flew 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean.

The departing vehicle is the second of Northrop Grumman's "Cygnus XL" line of freighters but the 24th <u>Cygnus</u> of any type to fly cargo to the orbiting lab. The company named it the S.S. Steven R. Nagel, after a NASA astronaut who flew four <u>space shuttle</u> missions in the 1980s and 1990s.

The S.S. Steven R. Nagel launched atop a <u>SpaceX</u> Falcon 9 rocket <u>on April 11,</u> carrying 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) of science gear and supplies to the <u>International Space Station</u> (ISS). It's carrying some stuff down as well — thousands of pounds of trash, which will burn up along with the Cygnus when it reenters <u>Earth's atmosphere</u> on Sunday (Oct. 11).

That's the usual fate for three of the four robotic ISS resupply vehicles in operation today — Cygnus XL, Russia's <u>Progress</u> and Japan's <u>HTV-X</u>. Only SpaceX's <u>Dragon</u> cargo capsule is reusable; it wraps up its orbital flights with parachute-aided ocean splashdowns.

Cygnus XL is different than Dragon in another way as well: The Northrop Grumman vehicle does not dock to the ISS on its own. Rather, it's grappled by Canadarm2, which berths it to the station and moves it around in other ways as necessary.

During today's operation, which was commanded from the ground, Canadarm2 detached the S.S. Steven R. Nagel from the Earth-facing port of the ISS' Unity module and then maneuvered it into position for release at 12:45 p.m. NASA astronaut Luke Delaney monitored these activities from the ISS.

"We're just really excited to have had the S.S. Stephen R. Nagel on board, and all the science and research, critical hardware," Delaney said shortly after the Cygnus was released.

"Appreciate all the teams that came together to make this complex operation a success, from assembly, launching, docking and now the undock," he added. "Thanks for continuing to push the boundaries of human knowledge and experiments on board, to include the research during this deorbit phase. These true are the building blocks of the future of space exploration."

And about that deorbit science: The S.S. Stephen R. Nagel is carrying heat shield prototypes that will get a test during the freighter's fiery reentry.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 9 with news of the Cygnus XL's departure from the ISS.

Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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