Matthew Nelson
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Monday, nearly three months after the cargo ship launched aboard an Antares rocket in Virginia as part of the company's 10th contracted resupply flight to the International Space Station.
The "S.S. John Young" craft left the orbiting laboratory with more than 5,500 pounds of cargo for disposal and deployed payloads for multiple customers during the NG-10 mission, Northrop said Monday.
Cygnus fielded five CubeSats through the NanoRacks External Cygnus Deployer and Slingshot CubeSat Deployer platforms prior to its descent. The vehicle also launched a separate payload antenna from UbiquitilLink to test the device's communications feature.
The NG-11 mission is scheduled for a mid-April launch. Northrop noted the next Cygnus liftoff will be the final mission under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services-1 contract with the company.
