Watch private Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft leave the International Space Station today

NASA's Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 Departure - YouTube

A private cargo spacecraft will leave the International Space Station today (Oct. 9) after a six-month stay, and you can watch the action live.

Northrop Grumman's uncrewed Cygnus XL freighter is scheduled to be released by the station's huge Canadarm2 robotic arm today at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT).

You can watch the action here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA. Coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT).

overhead view of a cylindrical spacecraft with two circular solar panels in orbit, with earth in the background — Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft the S.S. Steven R. Nagel rests at its capture point on April 13, 2026, 12 meters from the International Space Station, as the Canadarm2 robotic arm prepares to grapple it. (Image credit: NASA/Jessica Meir)

The departing vehicle is the second of Northrop Grumman's "Cygnus XL" line of freighters but the 24th Cygnus of any type to fly cargo to the orbiting lab. The company named it the S.S. Steven R. Nagel, after a NASA astronaut who flew four space shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s.

The S.S. Steven R. Nagel launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 11, carrying 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) of science gear and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). It will carry some stuff down as well — thousands of pounds of trash, which will burn up along with the Cygnus when it reenters Earth's atmosphere on Sunday (Oct. 11).

This is the usual fate for three of the four robotic ISS resupply vehicles in operation today — Cygnus XL, Russia's Progress and Japan's HTV-X. Only SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule is reusable; it wraps up its orbital flights with parachute-aided ocean splashdowns.

Cygnus XL is different than Dragon in another way as well: The Northrop Grumman vehicle does not dock to the ISS on its own. Rather, it's grappled by Canadarm2, which berths it to the station and moves it around in other ways as necessary.

During today's operation, which be commanded from the ground, Canadarm2 will detach the S.S. Steven R. Nagel from the Earth-facing port of the ISS' Unity module and then "maneuver it into position for release at 12:45 p.m," NASA officials wrote in a media advisory on Tuesday (Oct. 6). "NASA astronaut Luke Delaney will monitor the operation from aboard the orbital complex."

Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.