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Cygnus NG-21 patch
Cygnus ISS Cargo

Cygnus NG-21

A Cygnus cargo spacecraft delivering supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.

Northrop Grumman Launched 2024-08-04

NG-21 flew on a Falcon 9 and delivered around 3,800 kilograms, among the largest Cygnus loads carried, including scientific hardware, spare parts and provisions for a station whose crew complement had been temporarily enlarged by the Starliner situation.

The cargo included experiments on water recovery, the behaviour of liquid droplets, and a study of how spaceflight affects blood vessel function — research feeding into the medical preparation for missions beyond low orbit.

NASA astronauts enter the Cygnus space freighter
NASA astronauts enter the Cygnus space freighter — NASA Johnson Space Center

The spacecraft was named for Richard Francis Scobee, commander of Challenger's final flight.

Cygnus NG 21 Patch
Cygnus NG 21 Patch — NASA

It remained berthed for several months and performed reboost operations before departing with waste for destructive re-entry.

By this point the vehicle had made more than twenty flights across three corporate owners and four launch vehicles, delivering something over sixty tonnes to the station — a record that says as much about the durability of the contract structure as about the spacecraft.