Northrop Grumman’s latest space station has launched and is to make some deliveries which include pizza for seven.
Gatekeepers News reports that the American multinational aerospace’s Cygnus cargo ship rocketed away from Virginia’s eastern shore on Tuesday and is expected to reach the International Space Station on Thursday.
The 8,200-pound (3,700-kilogram) shipment includes fresh apples, tomatoes, and kiwi, a pizza kit, and a cheese smorgasbord for the seven-station astronauts.
A mounting bracket for new solar wings will also be launching to the orbiting lab next year. Others flying include, a material simulating moon dust and dirt that will be used to create items from the space station’s 3D printer, slime mold for a French educational experiment called Blob, and an infrared-detecting device meant as a prototype for future tracking satellites.
The Tuesday space travel makes Northrop Grumman’s 16th supply run for NASA and its biggest load yet. The company’s Antares rocket hoisted the capsule from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
Some minutes before liftoff, Northrop Grumman said via Launch Control, “Aloha to the S.S. Ellison Onizuka.”
The capsule was named for Hawaii’s Onizuka, the first Asian American in space who died in the 1986 Challenger launch disaster.
In few weeks, NASA’s other shipper, SpaceX, will follow with a cargo run.
The space station is currently home to three Americans, two Russians, one French, and one Japanese.
