NASA commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman is targeting 9:38 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 1, for the launch of its 14th resupply mission to the International Space Station.

A pre-launch news conference will air at 1 p.m. EDT today, Sept. 28, on NASA TV and at nasa.gov/live. Featured participants include:

• Greg Dorth, manager, International Space Station Program External Integration Office, NASA
• Heidi Parris, assistant program scientist, International Space Station Program Science Office, NASA
• Shannon Fitzpatrick, chief, Wallops Flight Facility Range and Mission Management Office, NASA
• Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager, Tactical Space, Northrop Grumman
• Kurt Eberly, director, Launch Vehicles, Northrop Grumman

Loaded with nearly 8,000 pounds of research, crew supplies, and hardware, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch on the company’s Antares rocket from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

The Cygnus spacecraft, dubbed the SS Kalpana Chawla, will arrive at the space station Sunday, Oct. 4. Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA will grapple Cygnus and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos will act as a backup. After Cygnus capture, mission control in Houston will send ground commands for the station’s robotic arm to rotate and install it on the bottom of the station’s Unity module. Cygnus is scheduled to remain at the space station until mid-December, when it will depart the station. Following departure, the Saffire-V experiment will be conducted prior to Cygnus deorbit and disposing of several tons of trash during a fiery re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere approximately two weeks later.