(Updated) Northrop Grumman’s resupply ship to depart space station tomorrow: Watch live

Northrop Grummans's Cygnus space freighter will be departing the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, June 28. The resupply ship arrived at the station on February 21, following a launch on the company's Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

The U.S. resupply ship will be detached from the station's Unity module overnight by the Canadarm2 robotic arm remotely controlled by engineers on the ground. The Canadarm2 will manoeuvre the cargo craft away from the station and release it at 6:05 a.m. EDT completing a four-month stay at the orbital lab.

On Wednesday, June 29, Cygnus will begin a planned destructive re-entry, in which the spacecraft - filled with trash packed by the station crew - will safely burn up in Earth's atmosphere. NASA TV coverage for the unberthing will begin at 5:45 am EDT on NASA TV, the agency's website, and the NASA app, the agency said on Monday.

It was Northrop Grummans's 17th commercial resupply services mission to the space station for NASA. Cygnus delivered more than 8,000 pounds of new science experiments, crew supplies, and station hardware to replenish the Expedition 66 crew.

The spaceship also completed its first limited reboost of the ISS on Saturday, June 25, making it the first mission to feature the space station reboost capability as a standard service for NASA. 

Live video coverage of Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus space freighter’s departure from the International @Space_Station is set for 5:45am ET (9:45 UTC) on Tuesday, June 28. More details: https://t.co/W2sT3qoLHG pic.twitter.com/IPMyJZYAwm

— NASA (@NASA) June 27, 2022

Update 1

The Cygnus cargo spacecraft has departed the space station for a safe return to Earth after four months at the orbiting laboratory, NASA confirmed on Tuesday.

Departure confirmed. The S.S. Piers Sellers, named after the late astronaut and NASA climate scientist, has departed the @Space_Station. @NorthropGrumman’s Cygnus spacecraft is now in free flight for a safe return to Earth: https://t.co/FRrjhINIvY pic.twitter.com/E8j5yjkkFa

— NASA (@NASA) June 28, 2022