The latest Cygnus cargo ship departed the International Space Station Saturday (Nov. 20) after sending a haul of cargo to the orbiting crew.

The Cygnus spacecraft floated away from the International Space Station under the supervision of Matthias Maurer, an astronaut of the European Space Agency on the station's Expedition 66 crew.

During that time, ground controllers will deploy the Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment, the latest in a series of autonomous experiments that run during the last few weeks of Cygnus missions.

Private Antares Rocket & Cygnus Spacecraft Explained (Infographic).

The Cygnus supply ship was christened the S.S.

(3,720 kilograms) of supplies, equipment and experiments, the biggest ever cargo delivery to the station by a Cygnus spacecraft.

"The Cygnus system has evolved from being just a cargo delivery service to a high performing science platform," said Northrop Grumman's Steve Krein, vice president, civil and commercial space, tactical space systems, said in a statement. "We continue to develop these capabilities to include the installation of environmental control systems and other upgrades to support the lunar orbiting Habitation and Logistics Outpost, or HALO." .

cargo ship to visit the space station will be a SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft, which is slated to launch in late December.

Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space.com who is one of the few Canadian journalists to report regularly on space exploration.

She is the author or co-author of several books on space exploration.

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