Live coverage: Japanese cargo craft departs International Space Station

NASA astronaut Nick Hague will take the place of Anne McClain on a spacewalk Friday outside the International Space Station, teaming up with crewmate Christina Koch  to continue a series of battery upgrades on an excursion that would have been the first all-female spacewalk in history.

Closing out 52 days at the International Space Station, an automated Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo craft left the research outpost Sunday to climb into a higher orbit for deployment of six CubeSats and further engineering experiments, before de-orbiting over Pacific Ocean later this month.

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket will deliver a Cygnus supply ship into orbit Thursday to begin a pursuit of the International Space Station.