Cygnus XL Cargo Spacecraft Released from Station by Canadarm2
At 12:44 p.m. EDT, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL was released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm after it detached from the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station’s Unity module. At the time of release, the space station was flying about 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean. The post Cygnus XL Cargo Spacecraft Released from Station by Canadarm2 appeared first on NASA Science .
On October 9, 2026, NASA's Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft was successfully released from the International Space Station by Canada's Canadarm2 robotic arm. The spacecraft, which had been docked at the Earth-facing port of the Unity module aboard the station, was deployed at 12:44 p.m. EDT over the Pacific Ocean. Cygnus XL had spent nearly six months on the orbiting laboratory, carrying more than 11,000 pounds of supplies, experiments, commercial goods, hardware, and other cargo to NASA and its partners in space.
Mission controllers are set to command the spacecraft to re-enter Earth's atmosphere on Monday, October 12, where it will burn up harmlessly during re-entry, carrying several thousand pounds of unneeded items and waste. NASA will not provide coverage of the deorbit and suggests following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and Instagram for updates.
Written by urgent.news from NASA Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
