Cygnus Berthing Delayed Until Tuesday
The arrival of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus spacecraft at the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed until Tuesday.
The cargo spacecraft was supposed to be berthed to ISS this morning (Sunday) at 7:25 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), but the attempt was aborted at about 1:30 am EDT. Orbital explained in a statement on its website that when the ISS and Cygnus established direct data contact “some of the data received had values that it did not expect, causing Cygnus to reject the data.”
Orbital is developing a software fix. A 48-hour delay is necessitated “due to the orbital mechanics of the approach trajectory.”
This is Orbital’s demonstration mission under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.
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