Skip to main content

Cygnus spacecraft suffers issue on the way to the space station

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft successfully launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, but a little while later, NASA reported an issue with the uncrewed vehicle as it headed to the International Space Station (ISS) with 8,200 pounds of supplies.

“Shortly after launch, the spacecraft missed its first burn slated for 11:44 a.m. due to a late entry to burn sequencing,” NASA said in a message on its website on Sunday.

Recommended Videos

It said the procedure, known as a “targeted altitude burn,” or “TB1,” was rescheduled for a bit later, but then aborted after the engine ignited because of a slightly low initial pressure state.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

“There is no indication the engine itself has any problem at this time,” the space agency said.

Cygnus is reported to be at a safe altitude, and Northrop Grumman engineers are working on a new burn and trajectory plan.

NASA said that the current aim is to achieve the spacecraft’s original ISS docking time of 3:10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, August 6.

With a record of mostly flawless flights over its 11-year history, news of a problem with Cygnus will come as a surprise to many who follow its missions. But engineers linked to the current flight are clearly confident that they can get the Cygnus spaceship to the ISS without any serious complications.

Cygnus is carrying with it a variety of science experiments, as well as spacewalk equipment, vehicle hardware, and computer resources for the ISS crew. Digital Trends has more information on the gear that it’s transporting to the orbital outpost.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
That 8-day Starliner space mission is now 233 days in
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Just before NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams headed to the Starliner spacecraft on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral in Florida in June last year, they will have probably said something to their family and friends along the lines of: “See you next week.”

That's because their stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) was scheduled to last eight days in what was the first crewed flight of the Starliner. But the mission took an unexpected turn when the spacecraft developed several technical issues on the way to the ISS. Fortunately, the capsule managed to dock, and Wilmore and Williams were able to safely board the ISS. However, after weeks of trying to resolve the issues, it was eventually decided that, out of an abundance of caution, the Starliner would be brought home empty.

Read more
This is the coolest camera lens swap you’ll ever see
Don Pettit on the ISS.

 

Don Pettit has been at it again. Not content with dazzling earthlings with incredible photos captured from his current home aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the NASA astronaut has now taken us behind the camera to show you the coolest lens change you’ve ever seen.

Read more
Watch SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft crash to Earth
Starship stage separation.

SpaceX nailed the landing of its first-stage Super Heavy booster during the seventh test of its mighty Starship rocket on Thursday, but the upper-stage Starship spacecraft suffered what SpaceX likes to call a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (in regular-speak, it blew up) soon after stage-separation.

A short while later, clips started appearing on social media apparently showing bits of the uncrewed Starship falling back to Earth near the Turks and Caicos Islands about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) east of the rocket’s launch site near Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX chief Elon Musk reposted one of them, saying: "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!" However, it was later reported that the FAA had to divert a number of flights in the area to ensure aircraft were kept away from the descending debris. It's also currently unknown if any of the debris reached land or if all of it landed in the sea.

Read more