Florida. On January 30, a SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched the Northrop Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station for the first time. Falcon 9 lifted off at 12:07 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Almost 15 minutes later, Cygnus placed the cargo spacecraft into orbit around the ISS’s NG-20 commercial resupply station. The first stage of the Falcon 9 landed at Cape Canaveral to complete its tenth flight.

This was Cygnus’ first launch with Falcon 9. Most previous Cygnus missions were launched on Northrop Grumman’s own Antares rocket, except those launched on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 vehicles following the failed Antares launch in 2014.

Northrop has purchased three Falcon 9 launches for Cygnus while working with Firefly Aerospace on the Antares 330, a new version of the rocket that replaces the Ukrainian-made first stage and Russian-made engines with Firefly-built stages and engines. Production of this car is planned to start in mid-2025.

In a Jan. 26 briefing, Northrop said they had made some changes to the Cygnus spacecraft or its operation for the transition to Falcon 9. In the same briefing, SpaceX said they modified the Falcon 9’s payload fairing to allow access to space by adding doors. Cygnus spacecraft for late loading of cargo just before launch.

The spacecraft, which Northrop named “SS Patricia ‘Patty’ Hilliard Robertson” after the late NASA astronaut, is planned to arrive at the station early on February 1 and dock with the Canadarm2 robot. Cygnus will remain at the station for at least 100 days.

Cygnus carries 3,726 kilograms of cargo for the ISS, split almost evenly between crew supplies, scientific research and vehicle equipment. Research workloads range from biological research to demonstrations of a surgical robotic system inside the station and robotic arms from Japanese company GITAI outside the station.

The payloads include the Hewlett Packard Enterprise space computer-2. The computer is designed to analyze data from other studies on the station using artificial intelligence and machine learning, without the need to transfer large amounts of data to the ground. “I can calculate faster than you can download,” lead researcher Mark Fernandez said during the Jan. 26 briefing.

The computer is an upgraded version of the computer previously flown on the station, with a new operating system and four 30-terabyte solid-state drives. “We will be able to take any raw data you produce, process it, and bring your information back to Earth faster and better than ever before,” he said.

LambdaVision, a company developing the best artificial retina produced in microgravity, is conducting its ninth experiment at the station at NG-20. “We’ve improved our manufacturing process over the last eight missions. We’re now working to make that process scalable,” said Nicole Wagner, LambdaVision’s CEO.

“Over the past few flights we’ve looked at scale: How can we take everything we’ve learned so far and build on that to produce more artificial retinas,” he said, as his company considers manufacturing in the future. ISP or its commercial successors.

Vehicle equipment on NG-20 includes a kit to retrofit another set of iROSA solar panels outside the station, as well as spare parts for station components such as the oxygen generator and exercise equipment. “All of these parts are actually spare parts for future repairs,” Dina Contella, director of operations integration for the ISS at NASA, said at a Jan. 26 briefing, not equipment that needs to be repaired right now.

As with other cargo missions, NASA uses NG-20 to provide the crew with a variety of fresh foods, from nut butters to hummus. “Lots of ice cream,” Contella added.