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by jan

Northrop Grumman’s new spacecraft is a real chonker [arstechnica.com]:

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What happens when you use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch Northrop Grumman's Cygnus supply ship? A record-setting resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The first flight of Northrop's upgraded Cygnus spacecraft, called Cygnus XL, is on its way to the international research lab after launching Sunday evening from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This mission, known as NG-23, is set to arrive at the ISS early Wednesday with 10,827 pounds (4,911 kilograms) of cargo to sustain the lab and its seven-person crew.

By a sizable margin, this is the heaviest cargo load transported to the ISS by a commercial resupply mission. NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will use the space station's Canadian-built robotic arm to capture the cargo ship on Wednesday, then place it on an attachment port for crew members to open hatches and start unpacking the goodies inside.

A bigger keg

The Cygnus XL spacecraft looks a lot like Northrop's previous missions to the station. It has a service module manufactured at the company's factory in Northern Virginia. This segment of the spacecraft provides power, propulsion, and other necessities to keep Cygnus operating in orbit.

The most prominent features of the Cygnus cargo freighter are its circular, fan-like solar arrays and an aluminum cylinder called the pressurized cargo module that bears some resemblance to a keg of beer. This is the element that distinguishes the Cygnus XL from earlier versions of the Cygnus supply ship.

The cargo module is 5.2 feet (1.6 meters) longer on the Cygnus XL. The full spacecraft is roughly the size of two Apollo command modules [si.edu], according to Ryan Tintner, vice president of civil space systems at Northrop Grumman. Put another way, the volume of the cargo section is equivalent to two-and-a-half minivans.

"The most notable thing on this mission is we are debuting the Cygnus XL configuration of the spacecraft," Tintner said. "It's got 33 percent more capacity than the prior Cygnus spacecraft had. Obviously, more may sound like better, but it's really critical because we can deliver significantly more science, as well as we're able to deliver a lot more cargo per launch, really trying to drive down the cost per kilogram to NASA."

Cargo modules for Northrop's Cygnus spacecraft are built by Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, employing a similar design to the one Thales used for several of the space station's permanent modules. Officials moved forward with the first Cygnus XL mission after the preceding cargo module was damaged [arstechnica.com] during shipment from Italy to the United States earlier this year.

Dina Contella, NASA's deputy ISS program manager, said engineers assessed how the larger Cygnus XL might affect the space station's thermal control and life support systems. Engineers also made sure the station's robotic arm could handle the heavier spacecraft.

"The NG-23 vehicle is packed with consumables like nitrogen, oxygen, food, and toilet parts, and it has a large number of spare parts that are required for systems like, for example, our urine processor," Contella said. The station was running low on some of these space parts over the past year. "We'd like to have a good reserve for the future," she said.

One of the research experiments flying on the NG-23 mission will examine how to better insulate cryogenic propellant tanks [nasa.gov] in space. The project's goal is to demonstrate a new way of minimizing boil-off of super-cold rocket propellant and controlling fuel tank pressure in microgravity. Another research payload will test the deployment of an inflatable "capture bag" system developed by TransAstra, an aerospace startup seeking a more affordable way to clean up space junk.

Managers at Northrop named the first Cygnus XL spacecraft the S.S. William "Willie" C. McCool in honor of the pilot of the final flight of the space shuttle Columbia. McCool and his six crewmates died when the shuttle broke apart during reentry over East Texas.

Northrop Grumman would have preferred to launch this mission on its own rocket, the Antares, but that's no longer possible. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 pitted two of the most critical suppliers for Northrop's Antares rocket against one another [arstechnica.com]. Shipments of Russian-made engines and Ukrainian-built boosters to Northrop dried up after the outbreak of war, and the last Antares rocket using critical foreign parts took off in August 2023.

NASA has a multibillion-dollar contract with Northrop Grumman to routinely resupply the ISS. Without a rocket of its own, Northrop Grumman inked a contract with SpaceX for three Falcon 9 launches to carry the resupply missions until engineers could develop a new, all-domestic version of the Antares rocket. Sunday's launch was the last of these three Falcon 9 flights.

Northrop Grumman is on the hook to pay SpaceX for the Falcon 9 launches. NASA has a firm fixed-price contract with Northrop, meaning the company is responsible for any cost overruns.

The Cygnus resupply program has been in this situation before. Orbital ATK, which Northrop Grumman purchased in 2018, turned to United Launch Alliance for rides aboard three Atlas V rockets in the aftermath of an Antares launch failure more than a decade ago. Northrop redesigned its rocket with new Russian engines and reeled off 13 successful Antares launches before geopolitics made the rocket's patchwork design untenable.

Now, Northrop is partnering with Firefly Aerospace on a new rocket, the Antares 330 [arstechnica.com], using a new US-made booster stage and engines. It won't be ready to fly until late 2026, at the earliest, somewhat later than Northrop officials originally hoped. Tintner confirmed Friday that Northrop has purchased a fourth Falcon 9 launch from SpaceX for the next Cygnus cargo mission in the first half of next year, in a bid to bridge the gap until the debut of the Antares 330 rocket.

A winning combo

SpaceX is NASA's other active cargo transportation provider for the ISS, using Dragon capsules that also launch on Falcon 9 rockets. The launch arrangement between Northrop and SpaceX abrogates NASA's preference to maintain two independent means of delivering supplies to the space station. For the time being, Dragon and Cygnus cargo missions are each tied to the success of the Falcon 9.

But there's a notable benefit to launching Cygnus missions on SpaceX's workhorse rocket. The Falcon 9 can loft heavier payloads than the old version of the Antares rocket, allowing NASA to take full advantage of the additional volume on the Cygnus XL. The combination of the Falcon 9 and Cygnus XL can deliver more cargo to the ISS than SpaceX's own Dragon cargo ship.

That's due to the Cygnus XL's more voluminous cargo module. SpaceX's Cargo Dragon is derived from the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft, with a heat shield and propellant reserves to bring the capsule and its cargo back from the ISS for a splashdown at sea. Northrop's Cygnus is designed to dispose of trash at the end of each mission by burning up in Earth's atmosphere.

This trade-off comes with a couple of important advantages. First, it allowed engineers to optimize the Cygnus design to carry as much cargo as possible to the ISS. Second, the Cygnus spacecraft has a wider hatch, or doorway, connecting it with the space station. This means astronauts can squeeze larger pieces of cargo through the Cygnus hatch than they can through SpaceX's Dragon hatch.

NASA has three more cargo missions on contract with Northrop Grumman, but may order more to keep the supply train running through the planned retirement of the ISS after 2030.

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