— A late NASA astronaut who was among the small number who filled all three career positions on a space shuttle crew — mission specialist, pilot and commander — is being memorialized with the naming of a commercial cargo spacecraft.

Northrop Grumman on Tuesday (March 10) announced that its next Cygnus XL capsule to launch to the International Space Station will be named for Steven Nagel. The company's 24th commercial resupply services (CRS-24) mission for NASA is targeted to lift off no earlier than April 8 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

"As a former NASA astronaut, I've experienced firsthand the necessity of these deliveries, from life saving medical research to our favorite food. The arrival of Cygnus at the space station and the name given to each mission gave me and my crewmates the opportunity to remember and celebrate the trailblazers and heroes that came before us," said Rick Mastracchio, director of business development at Northrop Grumman, in a video statement. "For the upcoming NG-24 mission, we recognize the accomplishments of Colonel Steven R. Nagel, a remarkable figure in aerospace history, a champion of human spaceflight and a truly great person."

Mastracchio got to know Nagel when they were both at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Nagel served as Mastracchio's T-38 jet instructor.

In 1978, Nagel was serving as a U.S. Air Force test pilot when he was selected as a member of NASA's first group of astronauts to train for the shuttle program. For his first spaceflight, he flew as a mission specialist, a position usually reserved for scientists and engineers without military flight experience.

He chocked up the initial mission specialist assignment as a way to get him into space sooner, given there were 13 pilots in his astronaut class. He flew his second mission as the pilot and then commanded two more flights.

"A veteran of four spaceflights, including commanding the mission that deployed the Gamma Ray Observatory, he helped expand our understanding of the universe and showcased the importance of scientific collaboration. Steve flew aboard STS-51G as a mission specialist, STS-61A as the pilot and commanded STS-37 and STS-55. With the completion of his fourth flight, Steve logged a total of 723 hours in space," said Mastracchio.

The "S.S. Steven R. Nagel" is Northrop Grumman's second Cygnus XL, a more capable version of the spacecraft that has delivered science equipment and crew supplies to the space station since 2014. The first Cygnus XL, the S.S. William 'Willie' C. McCool — named for the pilot on the ill-fated final flight of space shuttle Columbia — is set to be released from the space station on Thursday (March 12), six months after its arrival.

In addition to food and supplies for the Expedition 74 crew, the S.S. Steven R. Nagel will bring with it equipment to test a new method of controlling fuel tank pressures in microgravity and to fine-tune in-space production of semiconductor crystals as used in cellphones and computers.

While active at NASA, Nagel met his future wife, Linda Godwin, who became an astronaut in 1985. The two flew together on STS-37 but were not married until after Nagel left the astronaut office in 1995. He died in 2014 of cancer at the age of 67.

"Anyone who knew my dad knew how much he loved aviation and spaceflight from a very young age. He grew up flying with his dad and his uncle at his local airport," said Whitney Pasquini, one of Nagel and Godwin's two daughters. "So I think you'd be really interested to see how far spaceflight has come, to learn about where it's headed, but also really proud to know that he played a big part in mentoring this next generation and getting it to where it is today."

Other Cygnus namesakes have included company executive J.R. Thompson, Air Force Manned Orbiting Lab candidate Robert Lawrence, NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson and NASA astronauts David Low, Gordon Fullerton, Janice Voss, Deke Slayton, Alan Poindexter, John Glenn, Gene Cernan, John Young, Roger Chaffee, Alan Bean, Piers Sellers, Sally Ride, Patricia Robertson and Dick Scobee.