Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft fired its thrusters for 18 minutes to boost the International Space Station's orbit, NASA said in a report dated Sept. 25, 2026. The spacecraft's gimbaled delta velocity engine raised the station's altitude by 1.5 miles at apogee and 0.8 miles at perigee, placing it in an orbit of 265.5 x 256.8 miles.

The Cygnus XL, supporting NASA's Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 mission, arrived at the station on April 13 with more than 11,000 pounds of science and supplies. The September report said it was scheduled to stay berthed until October 2026, when the plan called for it to be loaded with disposal cargo, unberthed and destroyed during reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

According to the September report, the reboost was intended to set up the phasing for NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission, then planned to launch no earlier than Oct. 1, 2026, aboard a Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney were announced as commander and pilot, joined by CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov as mission specialists. After arrival, Crew-13 would become part of Expedition 75.