The weekend started off with a roar and a boom this morning, as SpaceX launched Falcon 9 carrying the NG-24 mission for Northrup Grumman from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today. Liftoff was at 7:41 AM, and the booster returned to land a couple hundred meters away from where it had launched only a few minutes later. The launch and the landing were both successful.

The mission — the second flight of the enlarged Cygnus XL configuration — is delivering more than 11,000 pounds of supplies and science hardware to the Expedition 73 crew aboard the station. The spacecraft has been named the S.S. Steven R. Nagel in honor of the NASA astronaut who flew four Space Shuttle missions and logged more than 720 hours in space.

Weather had pushed the launch from its original Friday, April 10 slot, with forecasted inclement conditions at the pad prompting teams to shift to Saturday’s opportunity.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster — on its seventh flight — returned to land at Cape Canaveral roughly eight minutes after liftoff. The booster previously supported the NG-23 cargo flight, NASA’s Crew-11 astronaut mission, the Axiom Space Ax-4 flight, and three Starlink missions.

Cygnus XL separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage just over 14 minutes after liftoff. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at the station Monday, April 13, when astronauts will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture it at 12:50 p.m. EDT before it is berthed to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for unloading.

The cargo includes a new module to advance quantum research and an investigation studying blood stem cell production in microgravity, with potential therapeutic applications on Earth.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

SpaceX will launch another tranche of Starlink satellites in the wee hours early Tuesday morning, weather permitting: