NASA Invites Media to Next Space Station Cargo Launch With Northrop Grumman

Media accreditation is open for the launch from Virginia of Northrop Grumman’s 15th commercial resupply services mission to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station aboard its Cygnus spacecraft.

Northrop Grumman is targeting liftoff of its Antares rocket for no earlier than 12:36 p.m. EST Saturday, Feb. 20, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, NASA will credential a limited number of media to cover the Antares launch from Wallops.

Both U.S. and U.S.-based international media must apply by 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2. All accreditation requests must be sent to Keith Koehler at [email protected]. International media from outside the United States will not be permitted to register for accreditation for this launch.

Each resupply mission to the station delivers scientific investigations in the areas of biology and biotechnology, Earth and space science, physical sciences, and technology development and demonstrations.

Research investigations launching to the orbiting laboratory aboard this Cygnus include:

• The Spaceborne Computer-2 from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which aims to demonstrate that current Earth-based data processing of space station experimental data can be performed in orbit
• An experiment studying muscle strength in worms
• |An investigation into how microgravity may optimize the production of artificial retinas

Cargo resupply from U.S. companies ensures a national capability to deliver critical science research to the space station, significantly increasing NASA’s ability to conduct new investigations at the only laboratory in space.