this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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ISS First: All 8 Docking Ports Occupied (www.nasa.gov)
submitted 2 weeks ago by ptfrd@sh.itjust.works to c/spaceflight@sh.itjust.works
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For the first time in International Space Station history, all eight docking ports aboard the orbital outpost are occupied following the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module.

This milestone follows the reattachment of the Cygnus XL spacecraft ... which was removed last week by the robotics officer at the agency’s Mission Control Center in Houston using the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm ... to provide appropriate clearance for the arriving crewed Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft on Nov. 27.

I heard NASA talking about this Cygnus XL operation at some online press conference a month or two ago. Pretty sure they said that the Cygnus XL wasn't actually in the way of the Soyuz, but they were moving it out of the way just to give more margin of clearance.

NG-23 is the first flight of a Cygnus XL vehicle. It was originally berthed on 2025-09-18 after a slight delay in orbit.

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 10 points 2 weeks ago

now thats some spaceporn!

[–] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

the reattachment of the Cygnus XL spacecraft

Was just wondering whether this was visible on either of the official live streams. There does seem to be something moving, for a period that seems to be somewhere around 15:36 - 15:41 UTC, on this one. (But you can only rewatch the last 12 hours of the stream, so you've only got about 4 hours left.)

Maybe I should become more familiar with the ISS In Real Time website or any other resources that might have details of what goes on up there.

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

That looks right. You can see the grapple fixture, the main engine that was bugging out on the way up, and the round solar array as the arm backs away.

This screenshot shows all of that, plus a bonus shot of the inflatable BEAM module in the background.

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I don't think we'll ever see more vehicle types at once at the ISS. This is 6, counting Crew Dragon, Cargo Dragon, HTV-X, Cygnus XL, Soyuz, and Progress. You can't beat that without more docking ports. The first Axiom module might effectively replace a CBM with an IDA while it's berthed, but I think the plan is for that module to split off once the first Axiom hab module shows up with more ports.