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By NASA
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft is launched on NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23 mission to the International Space Station on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025.Credit: NASA NASA is sending more science, technology demonstrations, and crew supplies to the International Space Station following the successful launch of the agency’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23 mission, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23.
The company’s Cygnus XL spacecraft, carrying more than 11,000 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory, lifted off at 6:11 p.m. EDT Sunday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission is the first flight of the larger, more cargo-capable version of the solar-powered spacecraft.
Cygnus XL is scheduled to be captured at 6:35 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, by the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will operate with assistance from NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. Following capture, the spacecraft will be installed to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading.
The resupply mission is carrying dozens of research experiments that will be conducted during Expedition 73, including materials to produce semiconductor crystals in space and equipment to develop improvements for cryogenic fuel tanks. The spacecraft also will deliver a specialized UV light system to prevent the growth of microbe communities that form in water systems and supplies to produce pharmaceutical crystals that could treat cancer and other diseases.
These are just a sample of the hundreds of scientific investigations conducted aboard the station in the areas of biology and biotechnology, Earth and space science, physical sciences, as well as technology development and demonstrations. For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported a continuous U.S. human presence aboard the orbiting laboratory, where astronauts have learned to live and work in space for extended periods of time. The space station is a springboard for developing a low Earth economy and NASA’s next great leaps in exploration, including Artemis missions to the Moon and American astronaut missions to Mars.
NASA’s arrival, capture, and installation coverage are as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Wednesday, Sept. 17
5 a.m. – Arrival coverage begins on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more.
6:35 a.m. – Capture of Cygnus XL with the space station’s robotic arm.
8 a.m. – Installation coverage begins on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more.
All coverage times are estimates and could be adjusted based on operations after launch. Follow the space station blog for the most up-to-date information.
Cygnus XL is scheduled to remain at the orbiting laboratory until March 2026, before it departs and disposes of several thousand pounds of trash through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, where it will harmlessly burn up. The spacecraft is named the S.S. William “Willie” C. McCool, in honor of the NASA astronaut who perished in 2003 during the space shuttle Columbia accident.
Learn more about this NASA commercial resupply mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/nasas-northrop-grumman-crs-23/
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Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-876-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 14, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Commercial Resupply ISS Research Johnson Space Center Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply View the full article
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By Amazing Space
Live Video from the International Space Station (Seen From The NASA ISS Live Stream)
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
While auroras are a beautiful sight on Earth, the solar activity that causes them can wreak havoc with space-based infrastructure like satellites. Using artificial intelligence to predict these disruptive solar events was a focus of KX’s work with FDL.Credit: Sebastian Saarloos In the summer of 2024, people across North America were amazed when auroras lit up the night sky across their hometowns, but the same solar activity that makes auroras can cause disruptions to satellites that are essential to systems on Earth. The solution to predicting these solar events and warning satellite operators may come through artificial intelligence.
The Frontier Development Lab of Mountain View, California, is an ongoing partnership between NASA and commercial AI firms to apply advanced machine learning to problems that matter to the agency and beyond. Since 2016, the Frontier Development Lab has applied AI on behalf of NASA in planetary defense, Heliophysics, Earth science, medicine, and lunar exploration.
Through a collaboration with a company called KX Systems, the Frontier Development Lab looked to use proven software in an innovative new way. The company’s flagship data analytics software, called kdb+, is typically used in the financial industry to keep track of rapid shifts in market trends, but the company was exploring how it could be used in space.
Between 2017 and 2019, KX Systems participated in the Frontier Development Lab partnership through NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. Working with NASA scientists, KX applied the capabilities of kdb+ to searching for exoplanets and predicting space weather, areas which could be improved with AI models. One question the Frontier Development Lab worked to answer was whether kdb+ could forecast the kind of space weather that creates the auroras to predict when GPS satellites might experience signal interruption due to the Sun.
By importing several datasets monitoring the ionosphere, solar activity, and Earth’s magnetic field, then applying machine learning algorithms to them, the Frontier Development Lab researchers were able to predict disruptive events up to 24 hours in advance.
While this was a scientific application of AI, KX Systems says some of this development work has made it back into its commercial offerings, as there are similarities between AI models developed to find patterns in satellite signal losses and ones that predict maintenance needs for industrial manufacturing equipment.
A division of FD Technologies plc., KX Systems is a technology company that offers database management and analytics software for customers that need to make decisions quickly. While KX started in 1993, its AI-driven business has grown considerably, and the company credits work done with NASA for accelerating some of its capabilities.
From protecting valuable satellites to keeping manufacturing lines moving at top performance, pairing NASA’s expertise with commercial ingenuity is a combination for success.
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Last Updated Sep 09, 2025 Related Terms
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