by An astronaut who died from injuries sustained in a plane crash before she could launch to the International Space Station (ISS) is being remembered as the first Northrop Grumman cargo spacecraft to fly on a SpaceX rocket has been named.
The SS Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson aims to lift off no earlier than January 29, 2024, atop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After a two-day rendezvous, the Cygnus supply ship will be captured by the robotic space station and anchored to the Earth-facing port on the Unity node to unload the Expedition 70 team.
“At Northrop Grumman, we are proud to support NASA and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station by delivering crew supplies, equipment and scientific experiments with our Cygnus spacecraft,” said Doug Hurley, Northrop Grumman director of business development and former NASA astronaut, in a video statement. “Before each mission, we name Cygnus after a trailblazer in the space community.”
Related: Facts about Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft.
A medical doctor and space medic, Robertson was a multi-engine rated flight instructor and avid aerobatic pilot with more than 1,500 hours of flight time. On May 22, 2001, two years after she had been selected to become a NASA astronaut and completed her basic training, Robertson was in a small private plane crash in Manvel, Texas.
Two days later, she died as a result of her injuries.
“Just 38 years old at the time of her death, she had already achieved so much, and her legacy in medicine, aviation and space exploration continues to inspire generations to come,” said Hurley.
Robertson was supporting the ISS Expedition 2 crew, coordinating activities between the Astronaut Office and Mission Control, when she died. She was expected to be assigned to her own flight to the space station the following year.
“Members of Patty’s astronaut class gave her a photo on her space shuttle mission, along with her NASA name as a tribute,” Hurley said, referring to a commemorative display that remains aboard the space station to this day.
One of those same classmates, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, is to be sent to the ISS while the SS Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson is anchored at the station.
The Robertson is Northrop Grumman’s 20th Cygnus spacecraft to fly since its first demonstration mission in September 2013. Over the past 10 years, the company has delivered more than 138,000 pounds (63,000 kilograms) of cargo to the space station .
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The NG-20 Cygnus will deliver food, supplies and equipment to the Expedition 70 crew, including the first surgical robot to operate on the ISS and an orbit re-entry platform that collects thermal protection system data. Other investigations on board the Robertson include 3D cartilage cell culture that grows healthy cartilage in a lower gravity environment and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Metal 3D printer, an autonomous semiconductor manufacturing platform.
Northrop Grumman contracted with SpaceX to launch three Cygnus missions as the company transitions its Antares rocket from using Russian-built engines to US-based engines developed with Firefly Aerospace. The new Antares 330 is expected to be ready by the end of 2024.
The SS Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson is the sixth Cygnus named for a woman and the second to honor a member of the 17th group of NASA astronauts selected in 1998. Robertson’s classmate Alan “Dex” Poindexter, who died in 2012 as a result of injuries suffered in a water sports accident, same in 2016.
Other past names include former company executive JR Thompson, US Air Force Staff Orbiter Laboratory (MOL) candidate Robert Lawrence, NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson and NASA astronauts David Low, Gordon Fullerton , Janice Voss, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Gene Cernan, John Young, Roger Chaffee, Alan Bean, Ellison Onizuka, Piers Sellers and Sally Ride.
The latest Cygnus, launched in August and still at the space station, was named the SS Laurel Clark after the STS-107 mission specialist who died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
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