Northrop Grumman announced its un-crewed NG-14 Cygnus spacecraft will be named for Kalpana Chawla, a NASA astronaut assigned to Shuttle Columbia’s ill-fated final mission.
On February 1, 2003, all seven members of the Columbia’s crew perished with the shuttle broke apart during re-entry over East Texas.
Preparations are underway at @NASA_Wallops for the NG-14 #Cygnus spacecraft launch aboard our #Antares rocket targeted for Sept 29.
The Cygnus spacecraft is slated to launch atop an Antares rocket at 10:27 p.m.
In 2016, another Cygnus spacecraft was named after another STS-107 astronaut, Commander Rick Husband.