![The NG-20 Cygnus service module leaves Virginia for Florida to be processed for launch to the International Space Station early next year. Credit: Northrop Grumman](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NG-20-Cygnus-Shipping.jpg)
The NG-20 Cygnus service module leaves Virginia for Florida to be processed for launch to the International Space Station early next yr. Credit: Northrop Grumman
The service module for Northrop Grumman’s next Cygnus resupply spacecraft is en path to Florida for launch atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The NG-20 Cygnus service module is being shipped from Virginia to Kennedy Space Center in Florida where it should be attached to the pressurized cargo module, already in Florida, and ready for launch to the International Space Station. Liftoff is currently scheduled for Jan. 29, 2024, from Space Launch Complex 40 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
![The NG-20 Cygnus pressurized cargo module already at Kennedy Space Center for launch processing. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/53230992777_fa3fe110f9_k-655x436.jpg)
The NG-20 Cygnus pressurized cargo module already at Kennedy Space Center for launch processing. Credit: NASA
That is the primary Cygnus spacecraft to fly atop a Falcon 9 for the reason that final Antares 230+ rocket launched in August 2023. The primary stage of the Antares rocket was being built by a supplier in Ukraine. Due to Russia’s invasion of that country in 2022, there are not any more boosters available.
Northrop Grumman is now currently working with Texas-based Firefly Aerospace to construct a alternative first stage, which isn’t expected to be ready until no less than mid-2025. Until then, no less than three Cygnus spacecraft are expected to fly atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Earlier this month, Northrop Grumman announced Cygnus NG-20 could be named after NASA astronaut Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson, who died in 2001 at age 38 from injuries sustained in a personal plane crash. Her first flight to space was expected to be a mission to the ISS in 2002.
Once NG-20 Cygnus launches, it’s scheduled to take about two days to succeed in the space station before being captured by the outpost’s robotic Canadarm2 and berthed to the Unity module. Cygnus typically carries around 8,400 kilos (3,800 kilograms) of supplies for ISS crews to unload over the spacecraft’s multi-month stay aboard the outpost.
That is the ninth Cygnus spacecraft under NASA’s second Industrial Resupply Services contract and the fifteenth within the “enhanced” configuration.
NG-19 Cygnus, which was launched in August, continues to be attached to the ISS. It is predicted to be unberthed from the outpost later this month for an eventual destructive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere with trash and unneeded equipment.