Software glitch forces private Cygnus cargo ship to abort first space station approach

The cargo ship will bring about 1,500 lbs. of cargo and stay connected to the ISS for 30 days before leaving with as much as 1,750 lbs. of disposal cargo.

Space.com reports that the new Cygnus cargo freighter, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., had to abort its first approach to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday after a software glitch. According to Florida Today, the planned approach has been delayed until at least Tuesday.

“Orbital Sciences has confirmed that this morning at around 1:30 a.m. EDT, Cygnus established direct data contact with the ISS and found that some of the data received had values that it did not expect, causing Cygnus to reject the data,” NASA wrote in a status update on Sunday. “This mandated an interruption of the approach sequence. Orbital has subsequently found the causes of this discrepancy and is developing a software fix.”

The space agency notes that it will take approximately 48 hours for Cygnus to restart its approach to the ISS given the orbital mechanics of the approach trajectory.

Florida Today adds that a Russian Soyuz spacecraft containing three additional crew members is scheduled to rendezvous with the ISS on Wednesday evening. So far, NASA has not said that Cygnus’ Tuesday approach would conflict with Soyuz’s arrival.

Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its Antares rocket carrying Cygnus on Wednesday. The cargo ship will bring about 1,500 lbs. of cargo and stay connected to the ISS for 30 days before leaving with as much as 1,750 lbs. of disposal cargo.

According to Orbital Sciences Corp., this flight is the concluding milestone in Orbital’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) project with NASA. As long as the journey ends with a successful conclusion, Orbital Sciences Corp. will start regularly scheduled cargo delivery trips to the ISS under the $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. Cygnus will bring about 20,000 kilograms of supplies to the ISS over eight missions through 2016.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Orbital Sciences Corp. has spent more than five years and approximately $500 million of its own money to create a commercial-cargo spacecraft.

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