Cygnus NG-23

NG-23 will be the twenty-second flight of the Cygnus, an expendable American cargo spacecraft used for International Space Station (ISS) logistics missions, that will launched on 14 September 2025. It is operated by Northrop Grumman under a Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The spacecraft was an Enhanced Cygnus, named the S.S. William "Willie" C. McCool in honor of the NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Colombia disaster.

NG-23

Names	CRS NG-23
Mission type	ISS resupply
Operator	Northrop Grumman
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	S.S. William "Willie" C. McCool
Spacecraft type	Extended Cygnus
Manufacturer	Northrop Grumman Thales Alenia Space
Start of mission
Launch date	14 September 2025
Rocket	Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site	Cape Canaveral, SLC‑40
Contractor	SpaceX
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Inclination	51.66°
Berthing at ISS
Berthing port	Unity nadir
Commercial Resupply Services ← SpaceX CRS-33 SpaceX CRS-34 → Cygnus flights ← NG-21 NG-22 →

NG-23 will the third launch of a Cygnus spacecraft on a Falcon 9 after Northrop Grumman exhausted the supply of its Antares 230+ rocket. The Antares used a Russian-built engine and Ukrainian-built first stage, and production ceased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Northrop Grumman expects its next-generation Antares 300 rocket that does not depend on Ukrainian or Russian parts to be ready to fly NG-22. As an interim solution, Northrop Grumman contracted with its CRS competitor SpaceX to launch NG-20, 21 and 23 using its Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket.^[1]

History

Main article: Cygnus (spacecraft)

Cygnus was developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, partially funded by NASA under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. To create Cygnus, Orbital paired the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, built by Thales Alenia Space and previously used by the Space Shuttle for ISS logistics, with a service module based on Orbital's GEOStar, a satellite bus. The larger Extended Cygnus was introduced in 2015. Orbital Sciences was renamed Orbital ATK in 2015 and Northrop Grumman purchased Orbital in 2018 and has continued to operate Cygnus missions.

Cygnus NG-21 is the Eleventh Cygnus mission under the Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract.

Production and integration of Cygnus spacecraft are performed in Dulles, Virginia. The Cygnus service module is mated with the pressurized cargo module at the launch site, and mission operations are conducted from control centers in Dulles, Virginia and Houston, Texas.^[2]

The NG-23 spacecraft was named the S.S. William "Willie" C. McCool in honor of the NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Colombia disaster. This is the First flight of the Extended-sized Cygnus PCM.^[3]

Manifest

The Mission was remanifest after getting substantial damage to Cygnus NG-22 Mission PCM during Transportation to launch site. Cygnus NG-22 was planned for a launch in June 2025. But after evaluation of damage NASA and Northrop Grumman has cancelled the NG-22 Mission and moved to NG-23 Mission. ^[4][5][6]

See also

• Uncrewed spaceflights to the International Space Station