I'd seen that few of these "fiery re-entry" resupply missions were named for astronauts who died in fiery crashes, so maybe it's a gallows humor Running gag?
Still seems tacky, though.
As per the data on the individual pages, the time between a mission's unberthing date and its decay date varies greatly from mission to mission. Just the few I checked (most recent missions) range from 1 day to 25.
All that I have seen for this one's 'swan dive' or 'swan song' is what was put out on Friday:
"Cygnus — filled with trash packed by the station crew — will be commanded to deorbit on Saturday, July 13, setting up a destructive re-entry in which the spacecraft will safely burn up in Earth's atmosphere," they added.Cygnus cargo spacecraft departs the ISS for a fiery re-entry in Earth's atmosphere
Or as currently on its wiki page:
End of mission
Disposal Deorbited
Decay date 13 July 2024 (planned)
***
Seems like a minor detail to follow up on, but I always appreciate a good metaphor. So far there's not an official word on the decay date for this one's burning up for good with all of the trash inside.
Unberthed on the 12th, commanded to decay on the 13th, and looks like there's a duality in the imagery -- the swan in the white space and the hangman (raven? black swan?) in the black.
To Phinneous,
Of course that would suggest that NG20 is a mission named 'Ang 20, like Esther's requests to hang the 10 sons of Haman and then hang them again, like how those solar arrays are designed, 2 "rosettes", of 10 and 10.
Sleep well, Deep State. Assassination plot thwarted.
"A shekel is 20 gerah".
"20 grand for summer camp. He's Mr. Woo-Woo." ~ Joel's mother (Addams Family Values)