NG-10 was the first Cygnus flown under the Northrop Grumman name, and it delivered around 3,300 kilograms to a station that had recently experienced two significant disruptions: a Soyuz launch abort and a small hole found in a docked Soyuz.
The cargo included a refabricator that recycles waste plastic into printing filament, closing the loop on the 3D printing experiments conducted since 2014 — a capability of clear value for missions that cannot be resupplied.
It also carried experiments on cement, crystal growth and the behaviour of the human immune system, alongside the usual crew provisions.
The spacecraft was named for John Young, who had died the previous January — the astronaut who flew Gemini, walked on the Moon and commanded the first Shuttle flight, and who is among the very few people whose career spans the whole of the American programme's first three decades.
It remained attached for three months, and after departure raised its orbit and deployed CubeSats before being destroyed on re-entry.
