Cygnus Arrival at ISS Postponed Till Saturday
Orbital Sciences Corporation and NASA decided this morning to postpone until Saturday the arrival of Orbital’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft at the International Space Station (ISS). Three new ISS crewmembers are scheduled to dock on Wednesday and the decision was made to wait until that operation is completed before proceeding with Cygnus’s mission.
Cygnus was launched on September 18 by Orbital’s Antares rocket. The original plan was to berth Cygnus on Sunday, but a data format mismatch between Cygnus and ISS forced a delay. Orbital and NASA were planning to try again tomorrow (Tuesday), but the crowded schedule led decision-makers to choose to wait a bit longer. Frank Culbertson, a former NASA astronaut and currently Executive Vice President and General Manager of Orbital’s Advanced Programs Group, said the new schedule allows Orbital’s operations team “to carefully plan and be well-rested before restarting the critical final approach to the space station.”
This is Orbital’s demonstration mission under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.
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