Prelaunch Briefing Saturday for Northrop Grumman CRS-18 Launch

A large, white rocket stands vertical on a launch pad, a thin trail of white exhaust exiting toward the middle of the rocket. A tall, white water tower stands next to the launch pad against a pale blue sky. In the foreground, blurred out, are the heads of shoulders of people looking at the rocket.
File photo of the Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus resupply spacecraft is seen on Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport prior to launch, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

A prelaunch briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website today beginning at 1 p.m.  to highlight launch preparations for Northrop Grumman’s 18th contracted cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station to deliver more than 8,200 pounds of research, supplies, and hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew.

Viewers can submit questions for the briefings using #askNASA on social media.

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch on the company’s Antares rocket from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of the state.

The prelaunch briefing participants:

  • Joel Montalbano, manager, International Space Station Program
  • Heidi Parris, associate program scientist for the International Space Station
  • Steve Krein, vice president, Civil and Commercial Space, Northrop Grumman
  • Kurt Eberly, director, Space Launch Programs, Northrop Grumman
  • Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer Jr., CEO and executive director, Virginia Space
  • Jeff Reddish, range chief, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility