Northrop Grumman Corporation’s ‘SS JR Thompson’ Cygnus spacecraft (named in honour of a former NASA deputy administrator) successfully completed its ninth cargo supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) last month.

The spacecraft delivered about 3,350kg of cargo, supplies and scientific experiments to the astronauts and removed more than 3,000kg of disposable cargo — a new record for Cygnus. It also put six CubeSats into orbit.

The mission began on 21 May and officially concluded on 30 July when Cygnus performed a safe destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean (east of New Zealand).

The spacecraft remained docked at the orbiting laboratory for 52 days and left the space station on 15 July.

Frank Culbertson, president (space systems group) at Northrop Grumman (www.orthropgrumman.com), said: “From launch to safe re-entry, the SS JR Thompson performed every phase of this mission perfectly.

“We now turn our attention towards final preparations for the next Cygnus cargo mission later this year.”