Science

Space station shipment launched from Virginia seashore

20 of April 2019

AP Photo, Northrop Grumman Antares CRS-11 Prelaunch,This photo provided by NASA shows the Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, with Cygnus resupply spacecraft onboard on Pad-0A, Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station will deliver about 7,600 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A fresh grocery shipment is on its way to the International Space Station after launching from Virginia.

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket blasted off Wednesday from Wallops Island. The company’s Cygnus capsule should arrive at the space station Friday, just in time for Easter.

While there’s no Easter ham or lamb, NASA says plenty of generic holiday fixings are going up for the space station’s six residents, including smoked turkey, pork chops, asparagus and cobbler. Altogether, 800 meals are tucked away.

The 7,600-pound (3,450-kilogram) load also includes three free-flying robots to be tested as astronaut helpers, 40 black lab mice and 63 tiny student-research satellites.

Another delivery should be coming by month’s end.

NASA’s other commercial shipper, SpaceX, is due to launch a shipment from Florida on April 26.