Kalpana Chawla Cygnus Spacecraft Ready for Liftoff

Northrop Grumman Corporation is set to launch the company’s 14th resupply mission (NG-14) to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract. The NG-14 mission’s Cygnus spacecraft S.S. Kalpana Chawla will launch aboard the company’s Antares rocket with nearly 8,000 pounds of scientific research, supplies and hardware for the astronauts aboard the station.

Liftoff of the Antares rocket is scheduled for Oct. 1 at 9:38 p.m. EDT from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A on Wallops Island, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.

A secondary mission is also planned for Cygnus once it leaves the space station in approximately three months. The spacecraft hosts the Northrop Grumman-built SharkSat payload and will perform the Saffire–V experiment.

Northrop Grumman names each Cygnus spacecraft in honor of individuals who have made substantial contributions to the United States’ commercial space program and human space flight. The NG-14 mission commemorates Kalpana Chawla, a NASA astronaut and the first woman of Indian descent to fly in space. Chawla was selected for the astronaut program in 1994, with her first flight in 1997 on STS-87 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. In 2003, Chawla and her crew members tragically lost their lives during mission STS-107 when Columbia did not survive its return to Earth.

The S.S. Kalpana Chawla will remain attached to the ISS for approximately three months before departing with up to 8,200 pounds of disposal cargo.

Cygnus consists of a service module and a pressurized cargo module. The Cygnus spacecraft is used to carry crew supplies, spare equipment and scientific experiments to the space station. The service module incorporates advanced avionics developed by Northrop Grumman and guidance and navigation components that allow for fully autonomous rendezvous with the space station. The avionics design fully meets all of the demanding NASA safety requirements imposed on human-rated vehicles. The pressurized cargo module is manufactured by Thales Alenia Space specifically for Cygnus.

(Image provided with Northrop Grumman news release)