WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — Astronauts onboard the International Space Station are about to receive a special delivery.
NASA and Northrop Grumman launched a cargo spacecraft at 12:40 p.m. ET Saturday as part of the latest commercial resupply mission from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Loaded up with more than 8,300 pounds of crew supplies, hardware and research, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft got to space from an Antares rocket.
Among the cargo making the trek to the orbiting laboratory will be a study that examines the effects of a drug on breast cancer and prostate cancer cells, new hydrogen sensors to test the ISS's oxygen generation system and a new combustion facility.
Also tucked away in the thousands of pounds of cargo will be a Colgate-Palmolive investigation that will "leverage the acceleration of skin aging in microgravity."
The cargo is set to arrive at the ISS in the early hours of Feb. 21. NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron will participate in the capture of Cygnus.
The spacecraft will have a bit of a stay at the space station with a departure scheduled for May. NASA says Cygnus will dispose of several tons of trash during its "fiery" reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.