Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus XL cargo ship undocked from the International Space Station on Thursday, March 12, and is on a planned two-day trip back to Earth, where officials expect it to make a destructive reentry over the South Pacific on Saturday, March 14. When commanded to begin its final descent the spacecraft will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, a routine end-of-mission procedure for expendable resupply vehicles.
The Cygnus XL left the station around 7 a.m. ET on March 12 after being released by Canada’s Canadarm2 from the Unity module. At the time it detached the ISS was orbiting roughly 260 miles (about 420 km) above the south Atlantic Ocean. The uncrewed vehicle arrived at the outpost in September 2025 carrying about 11,000 pounds of supplies and scientific equipment for the seven-person crew aboard the station, including three Americans.
Ahead of reentry, NASA said the Cygnus XL is also carrying “several thousand pounds of trash” from the space station that will be consumed during the fiery descent. NASA livestreamed the undocking on its NASA+ service but said it will not provide live coverage of the spacecraft’s final plunge into the atmosphere.
The Cygnus XL is Northrop Grumman’s larger, upgraded version of its long-running Cygnus cargo line, able to carry roughly 2,600 extra pounds compared with earlier models. Its trip to the ISS in September 2025 began on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch; the spacecraft deployed solar arrays successfully but experienced a temporary engine safeguard that delayed its arrival by a day before the issue was resolved.
This planned destructive reentry follows another recent uncontrolled return: one of the defunct twin Van Allen Probes reentered on Wednesday, March 11. The Cygnus XL’s disposal will close out another routine resupply mission that supports research and daily life aboard the aging orbital laboratory. This report is based on reporting by Eric Lagatta for the USA TODAY Network.
Original Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/cargo-spacecraft-crash-earths-atmosphere-172838042.html
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Publish Date: 2026-03-13 22:58:00
