NASA, Northrop Grumman postponed the arrival of Cygnus XL at the ISS after the problem of propulsion – SpaceFlight now

The new CYGNUS XL spacecraft from Northrop Grumman will no longer dare with the international space station on Wednesday morning as originally planned.

In a blog post on Tuesday evening, NASA announced that two orbit burns of the main engine of the spacecraft “stopped earlier than expected”. The agency did not indicate to what extent the expected burns were made before the premature closures.

NASA has not indicated either which may have caused the fact that the engine does not work as expected.

While the mission directors examine the plans to make the remaining appointment maneuvers, the agency said: “All the other Cygnus XL systems are operating normally”, but have not offered additional details.

NASA astronaut, Jonny Kim, was initially captured the Cygnus XL spacecraft at 6:35 a.m. HAE (1035 UTC) alongside his compatriot NASA astronaut, Zena Cardman. Kim is responsible for commander of the robotic arm Canadarm2 to settle the vehicle while it is about 10 meters (32.8 feet) of the ISS.

The Cygnus XL spacecraft, named the SS William ‘Willie’ C. McCool Launched from PAD 40 at CAPE Canaveral Space Force Station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:11 p.m. (2211 UTC) on Sunday, September 14. The freighter has successfully separated from the upper rocket stadium more than 14 minutes after takeoff.

NASA reported that the vehicle had been able to deploy its two solar networks for about an hour and a half after the departure of the space coast.

A day before launch, an unrelated Russian progression vehicle arrived at the space station on Saturday on a planned freight supplies race.

What’s at stake?

This mission, Northrop Grumman Commercial Repaply Services of NASA 23 or NG-23 for short, is the beginnings of the Cygnus XL. As its name suggests, it is a larger version of the Cygnus spaceship. It measures approximately 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) more and can take care of approximately 2,600 pounds of additional cargo.

“It has 33% more capacity than the previous spatial cygnus,” said Ryan Tiner, vice-president of civil space systems for Northrop Grumman before launch. “Obviously, more may seem better, but it is really essential because we can provide many more sciences, and we are able to deliver much more cargo by launch, really trying to reduce the cost per kilogram to NASA.”

The Cygnus XL transports more than 11,000 pounds (4,990 kg) of food, science and supplies on board.

“The NG-23 vehicle is filled with consumables, such as nitrogen, oxygen, food and toilet pieces. And it has a large number of spare parts that are necessary for systems, for example, such as our urine processor,” said Dina Contella, deputy director of the ISS program of NASA, during a pre-prelauage briefing on Friday. “We are full of these articles since we have been short in the past year and we would like to have a good reserve for the future.”

NASA had to mix its freight schedule scheduled for the start of this year due to another cygnus spacecraft. The vehicle intended for the NG-22 mission was damaged while northrop grumman installations in Virginia were shipped to NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This mission was to be launched in June 2025, so to compensate, NASA adjusted the load of loading the CRS-32 mission of SpaceX to “add more supplies and consumable food to help ensure sufficient supplies of supplies on board the station”. The agency also carried out the CRS-33 missions of SpaceX and the NG-23 missions at the front on the calendar to fill the gap between the freight races towards the ISS.

“In general, what we have done historically is that we like to have four months of supplies on board. And the objective is really, if you have a problem with the next mission, if for any reason that cannot fly, you can go to the mission after that,” said Dana Weigel, manager of the NASA SPSE program, after the launch in August 1 of the Mission of the crew-11.

“When Northrop Grumman found the problem of spaceships on the NG-22 and realized that he could not fly this year, we quickly adjusted the SpaceX 32 mission. It was regrettable that we had to do a lot of research, but what I did was load it with food and water and other consumables,” she explained. “It doesn’t make me quite where I must be to manage the jump of a mission. Once I have [SpX-33] Up there, so I will be closer to the position where if my next flight does not succeed, then I can go to the one after. So it’s really the strategy. »»

The SPX-33 mission, also called CRS-33, was successfully launched from Pad 40 in Cape Canaveral on August 24 and began independently at space station less than 29 hours later on August 25.

Not the first CRS incident

Northrop Grumman and SpaceX are the two American companies which currently provide goods at the ISS within the framework of the Resupplies Services 2 commercial contract with NASA. Sierra Space has also obtained a CRS-2 contract for at least seven unchecked freight missions at the ISS with its Spaceklane Chaser Dream. However, it has not yet been launched and it is not clear when its first launch will occur.

To date, SpaceX has completed 31 flights with a cargo dragon vehicle currently at the station. Northrop Grumman successfully completed 20 loading flights. The two companies have experienced anomalies in flight at the start of their flight history.

SpaceX launches its dragon spaceship with its Falcon 9 rockets. Northrop Grumman also uses Falcon 9 to go to orbit while it continues to develop its Antares 330 rocket in partnership with Firefly Aerospace. Its first launch is scheduled in 2026.

Meanwhile, the next freight mission on the calendar, after the planned arrival of the NG-23 Cygnus XL, is another new spacecraft called HTV-X. It is provided by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with the support of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa).

HTV-X is expected to be launched on an H3 rocket from Japan on October 21.