SpaceX Sends Northrop Grumman’s Large Cargo Ship To Orbit In Its Debut Flight

SpaceX launched a new Northrop Grumman cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on Sunday evening.

The mission, named NG-23, will deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the ISS, according to NASA. The launch marked the debut mission of the Cygnus XL spacecraft, a larger version of the Cygnus vehicles with a payload of 11,000 pounds.

The solar-powered Cygnus XL spacecraft took to the skies on board a Falcon 9 rocket at about 6.11 pm ET from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This was the first Cygnus mission since August 2024, when NG-21 was launched. Earlier this year, NASA scrapped the NG-22 mission to the ISS after the Cygnus spacecraft was damaged while being transported to the launch site.

Among the key objectives of the mission is to send materials to produce semiconductor crystals in space and equipment to develop improvements for cryogenic fuel tanks. The spacecraft will also deliver a specialized UV light system to “prevent the growth of microbe communities that form in water systems” and supplies to make pharmaceutical crystals that could treat cancer and other diseases.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits about Northrup Grumman was in the ‘neutral’ territory at the time of writing.

After the spacecraft arrives near the ISS, the astronauts onboard will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to grab the Cygnus XL vehicle on Sept. 17, before robotically installing the spacecraft to unload the cargo.

The Cygnus XL spacecraft, named S.S. William “Willie” McCool, in honor of the NASA astronaut who died in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster, will remain at the orbiting laboratory until March 2026 before it leaves and burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Northrup Grumman stock has risen nearly 22% this year.

Sunday’s mission was another successful launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has already carried out over 100 missions this year. SpaceX is scheduled to launch two more batches of Starlink satellites later this week.

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