Spaceships and Rockets

Commercial Resupply Rockets

These commercial rockets resupply the International Space Station, delivering cargo and scientific investigations.

A little more than two years after the end of the Space Shuttle Program, SpaceX and Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman) began successfully resupplying the space station with cargo launched from the United States. This partnership is changing the way NASA does business, helping build a strong American commercial space industry, and freeing the agency to focus on developing the next-generation rocket and spacecraft that will allow us to travel farther in space than ever before.

Antares

Falcon 9

Antares

On April 17, 2019, at 4:46 p.m. EST, Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket carried a Cygnus spacecraft into orbit, loaded with 7,600 pounds of research, crew supplies, and hardware to the International Space Station.

NASA

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, carrying the Cygnus spacecraft, is a two-stage rocket that delivers science and research, crew supplies, and vehicle hardware to the International Space Station and its crew. The rocket provides low Earth orbit launch capability for payloads weighing up to 17,636 pounds (8,000 kilograms).

The Antares program successfully conducted its inaugural test launch on April 21, 2013, and the Orb-D1 demonstration mission on Sept. 18, 2013, both of which were conducted under the Commercial Orbital Transportation System agreement with NASA. In 2014, Northrop Grumman began delivering cargo to the International Space Station under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS1) contract. The company was later selected to continue flying resupply missions under NASA’s CRS2 contract.

Technical Overview

Diameter: 3.9 meters (12.8 feet)
Height: 42.5 meters (139.4 feet)
Mass: 290,000-310,000 kilograms (639,341-683,433 pounds)

Falcon 9

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars upward after its liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 14, 2023, on the company’s 27th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:30 p.m. EDT.

SpaceX

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. Falcon 9 is the first orbital class rocket capable of re-flight.

Falcon 9 began delivering cargo to the International Space Station for NASA in 2012, making SpaceX the first commercial company to visit the station. Falcon 9 went on to make numerous trips to space, delivering satellites to orbit as well as delivering and returning cargo from the space station for NASA, before becoming certified to launch astronauts.

Technical Overview

Diameter: 3.7 meters (12 feet)
Height: 70 meters (229.6 feet)
Mass: 549,054 kilograms (1,207,920 pounds)

All Crewed Missions