The astronaut, who died due to injuries he suffered in a plane crash before being launched to the International Space Station (ISS), is named after the first cargo spacecraft to fly on Northrop Grumman’s SpaceX rocket.
SS Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson is targeted to lift off atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on January 29, 2024 at the earliest. After a two-day rendezvous, the Cygnus supply ship will be captured by the space station’s robotic arm and docked at the Earth-facing dock at the Unity node for the Expedition 70 crew to unload its cargo.
“At Northrop Grumman, we are proud to support NASA and astronauts aboard the International Space Station by providing crew supplies, equipment and scientific experiments aboard our Cygnus spacecraft,” said Doug Hurley, director of business development for Northrop Grumman and former NASA astronaut. in a video description. “Before each mission, we name Cygnus after a pioneer in the space community.”
Relating to: Facts about Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft
A medical doctor and space medicine specialist, Robertson was also a multi-engine flight instructor and avid aerobatic pilot with more than 1,500 hours of flight time. On May 22, 2001, two years after Robertson was selected as a NASA astronaut and completed basic training, he was involved in a small private plane crash in Manvel, Texas.
He died from his injuries two days later.
“He was only 38 when he died and had already accomplished so much, and his legacy in medicine and aviation and space exploration continues to inspire generations after him,” Hurley said.
Robertson was supporting the ISS Expedition 2 team, coordinating activities between the Astronaut Office and Mission Control when he died. It was expected to be assigned its own flight to the space station the following year.
“Members of Patty’s astronaut class brought a photo of her from her space shuttle mission and her NASA name tag as souvenirs,” Hurley said, referring to a commemorative display that remains on the space station to this day.
While one of the same classmates, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, was scheduled to be launched to the ISS, SS Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson also docked at the station.
Robertson is the 20th Cygnus spacecraft to fly since Northrop Grumman’s first demonstration mission in September 2013. Over the past 10 years, the company has delivered more than 138,000 pounds (63,000 kilograms) of cargo to the space station.
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NG-20 Cygnus will provide food, supplies and equipment to the Expedition 70 crew, including the first surgical robot to operate on the ISS and an orbital reentry platform that collects thermal protection systems data. Other research aboard Robertson includes a 3D cartilage cell culture that preserves healthy cartilage in a lower gravity environment, and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Metal 3D printer, an autonomous semiconductor manufacturing platform.
Northrop Grumman has contracted SpaceX to launch three Cygnus missions as the company transitions its Antares rocket from Russian-made engines to US-based engines developed with Firefly Aerospace. The new Antares 330 is expected to be ready by the end of 2024.
SS Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson is the sixth Cygnus named for a woman and the second Cygnus to honor a member of NASA’s 17th astronaut group selected in 1998. Robertson’s classmate Alan “Dex” Poindexter, who died in 2012, was also commemorated in a similar manner in 2016.
Other past names include former corporate executive JR Thompson, US Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) candidate Robert Lawrence, NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, and NASA astronauts David Low, Gordon Fullerton, Janice Voss, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Gene Cernan, John taking. Young, Roger Chaffee, Alan Bean, Ellison Onizuka, Piers Sellers and Sally Ride.
The last Cygnus, launched in August and remaining on the space station, was named SS Laurel Clark in memory of the STS-107 mission specialist who died aboard space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
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