Last week, the Orbital Sciences Corporation, a private space technology company, launched a rocket carrying a cargo ship called the Cygnus into space. The goal of the Cygnus was to dock with the International Space Station after a four-day orbit, rendezvous with the ISS crew, and take up residency on the space station for a month before departing and returning to Earth.

That was the plan, anyway. According to a press release published on Sunday by NASA, the Cygnus spacecraft encountered a spat of technical difficulties that will now delay the International Space Station rendezvous for another 48 hours. After forging a “direct data contact” with the International Space Station early Sunday morning, NASA says that the Cygnus unexpectedly rejected the data, which in turn forced both Orbital Sciences and NASA to delay the Cygnus approach sequence.

The Cygnus, when it eventually docks with the International Space Station, will serve an important role for the residents of the station. The spacecraft was designed to carry bulk loads of cargo to and from the space station. Currently, the Cygnus is bearing some 1,500 pounds of cargo, “including crew supplies and consumables, spare parts and equipment, and scientific experiments.”

Since the Cygnus was supposed to dock with the International Space Station on September 22, the gear is late on arrival, but neither NASA nor Orbital Sciences have indicated that the ISS crew will have difficulty getting by for another couple of days. In fact, the ISS crew got an off-duty day on Sunday thanks to the rendezvous delay – not a bad deal in the busy life of a space station resident.

The mission of the Cygnus is also two-fold. Not only will the craft bring fresh supplies to the International Space Station crew, it will also take roughly 1,750 pounds of refuse cargo away when it disconnects from the station in 30 days. In other words, the Cygnus is both delivery man and garbage truck.

Orbital Sciences claims that it has found the cause of the data rejection error within the Cygnus spacecraft software and that the error has subsequently been repaired. The craft should now dock with the International Space Station on Tuesday, September 24. The Cygnus is also not the only new arrival at the International Space Station this week. According to NASA, three new crew members, including a NASA astronaut and two members of the Russian Federal Space Agency, are also currently en route to the space hub.