Northrop Grumman Cygnus

Cygnus is an expendable American uncrewed cargo spacecraft developed for resupply missions to the International Space Station. It was originally built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, a company later folded into Northrop Grumman, with financial support from NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The spacecraft pairs a pressurized cargo module built by Thales Alenia Space with a service module derived from Orbital GEOStar satellite bus. A successful demonstration flight in 2013 led to a Commercial Resupply Services contract, the Enhanced Cygnus debuted in 2015, and the larger Cygnus XL entered service in 2025. Cygnus is typically launched on the Antares rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia but has also flown on Atlas V and Falcon 9 rockets. It has no cargo return capability, and each mission ends with a controlled destructive reentry that also disposes of waste from the station.