Supplies For The Space Station Were Launched With Pizza Delivery For 7 People

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Pizza delivery for 7 people is included in Northrop Grumman’s newest space station.

The Cygnus cargo ship of the firm sped away from Virginia’s eastern shore on Tuesday. On Thursday, it is expected to reach the International Space Station.

Fresh apples, tomatoes, and kiwis are among the 8,200-pound (3,700-kilogram) shipment’s contents, which also includes a pizza kit and a cheese smorgasbord for the station’s seven astronauts.

A mounting bracket for new solar wings that will be delivered to the orbiting lab next year, a material that simulates moon dust and dirt that will be used to make items using the space station’s 3D printer, a slime mold for a French educational experiment called Blob, and an infrared-detecting device that will be used as a prototype for future tracking satellites are also in the air.

It’s Northrop Grumman’s 16th NASA supply run, and it’s the largest one yet. The capsule was launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility by the company’s Antares rocket.

“Aloha to the S.S. Ellison Onizuka,” Northrop Grumman stated minutes before liftoff through Launch Control. Onizuka of Hawaii was the first Asian American in space, and he perished in the Challenger launch accident in 1986.

In a few weeks, NASA’s other shipper, SpaceX, will launch a cargo mission.

Three Americans, two Russians, one Frenchman, and one Japanese are presently stationed aboard the space station.