Cygnus CRS-2 NG-25

Cygnus NG-25 is Northrop Grumman’s twenty-fifth resupply flight to the Station, the third launched on a Falcon 9 since the retirement of Antares 230+ left the cargo freighter without a rocket. The vehicle carries roughly 3,800 kg of food, hardware and experiments, and stays berthed at the nadir port of the Unity module for about three months before being filled with rubbish and burned up over the Pacific. The end of every Cygnus is a small bonfire seen from no window.

Tucked among the science racks on this flight is the Saffire-VII fire-safety payload — a deliberate burn of a fabric panel inside the vehicle after it has undocked. The experiment runs only once Cygnus is empty, on its way home, and the cameras inside record how flames spread in microgravity. The data feeds into the materials testing for the next generation of crew capsules.