Cygnus NG-23 Mission : September 14, 2025

[catdlr]

Capture approach to soft capture is complete.

[catdlr]

6:24 CT
Soft grapple complete, snares have closed

[catdlr]

Capture compled flying over the DRC

[catdlr]

Special memorial to William McCoo and the importance of this ship to the ISS.

[catdlr]

That concluded my coverage, time to eat breakfast and jump over the BO launch NS-35.   Tony

Short video of the capture from NASA

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1968638314510004735

[Targeteer]

A current value during the burns exceeded the "overly conservative" limits

[Targeteer]

https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1968639459886322080

[Targeteer]

Post capture activities are running 70 minutes behind the planned timeline

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson/status/1968640349380718787

[catdlr]

I'm not covering this, but the quality reminds me of watching the Apollo videos on the moon via TV coverage

[centaurinasa]

Replay of the berthing.

[centaurinasa]

"Cygnus XL Cargo Craft Installed on Station’s Unity Module

Sept. 18, 2025: International Space Station Configuration. Six spaceships are docked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, the SpaceX Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo craft, the Soyuz MS-27 crew ship, and the Progress 92 and 93 resupply ships.


Northrop Grumman’s new Cygnus XL spacecraft has been installed to the International Space Station. The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23.

Filled with more than 11,000 pounds of research and supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft, carried on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched at 6:11 p.m. EDT on Sept. 14, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission will be the first flight of the Cygnus XL, the larger, more cargo-capable version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft.

Cygnus will remain at the space station until spring when it departs the orbiting laboratory at which point it will dispose of several thousand pounds of debris through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will harmlessly burn up."

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/09/18/cygnus-xl-cargo-craft-installed-on-stations-unity-module/

[centaurinasa]

Cross-post:

Interesting, according to Rob Navias, two days before Soyuz MS-28 arrival  (to MIM-1 Rassvet module) Cugnus will be  detached Nov. 25th and stay in "overnight park position"to prevent any interference during soyuz's docking, to be and then reattached to the Unity nadir CBM

[OM72]

Cross-post:

Interesting, according to Rob Navias, two days before Soyuz MS-28 arrival  (to MIM-1 Rassvet module) Cugnus will be  detached Nov. 25th and stay in "overnight park position"to prevent any interference during soyuz's docking, to be and then reattached to the Unity nadir CBM

This is for plume impingent concerns/reasons.   

[DanClemmensen]

What engine is used as the Cygnus main engine? Wikipedia asserts that it is the BT-4, made by IHI, but that's not completely clear from the references and I have not been able to find better references.

I think that's likely correct. The Cygnus service module is derived from the Orbital Star-2 comsat bus,
which used the BT-4.

This new Cygnus version, Cygnus XL, might be the most massive spacecraft to be boosted by that engine. We will need to wait for Northrup Grumman to tell us what happened, but I will be interested to know if these anomalous events included thrust durations and forces that are larger than earlier uses of the BT-4.

[catdlr]

Two video post

NG-23 S.S. William McCool Cygnus XL capture highlight video




Berthing Timelaps video:

[eeergo]

Cross-post:

Interesting, according to Rob Navias, two days before Soyuz MS-28 arrival  (to MIM-1 Rassvet module) Cugnus will be  detached Nov. 25th and stay in "overnight park position"to prevent any interference during soyuz's docking, to be and then reattached to the Unity nadir CBM

This is for plume impingent concerns/reasons.   

Wonder why it couldn't be berthed to Harmony nadir instead (or relocated before the Soyuz docking)

[Targeteer]

The Cosmonauts are planning the obligatory "we need to verify the environment in arriving US vehicles air quality check" so Alexi is going to have to "jump off ARED" to do the check then jump back on...

[catdlr]

Video post (the second one)

NASANASA
At 10:10am ET (1410 UTC), the Cygnus XL spacecraft was successfully installed to the
@Space_Station, bringing more than 11,000 pounds of supplies to the orbital lab.

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1968680655383871678

[StraumliBlight]

Interesting, according to Rob Navias, two days before Soyuz MS-28 arrival  (to MIM-1 Rassvet module) Cugnus will be  detached Nov. 25th and stay in "overnight park position"to prevent any interference during soyuz's docking, to be and then reattached to the Unity nadir CBM

In the Teleconference (at 09:51) there was some uncertainty by NASA on whether to deorbit Cygnus before Soyuz arrival instead of holding it with Canadarm.