Glitch delays space station supply ship

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Pres

Glitch delays space station supply ship

Florida Today 11:25 a.m. EDT September 22, 2013

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. have postponed until at least Tuesday a rendezvous between the new Cygnus cargo freighter and the International Space Station due to a data link problem.

The rendezvous had been planned this morning, when the unmanned Cygnus flew within about 2.5 miles of the orbiting research complex.

Orbital said the Cygnus's approach was interrupted after it established contact with the station around 1:30 a.m. The spacecraft unexpectedly rejected some data and the link was interrupted.

"Orbital has subsequently found the causes of this discrepancy and is developing a software fix," the Dulles, Va., company said in a statement around 4:30 a.m.

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Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/22/space-station-supply-ship-delay/2848949/

[longship]

1. This kind of thing is inevitable and is forseen.

That's why they have procedures to fix it. Elon Musk's (???) first supply to the ISS had a problem, too -- early engine shutdown, IIRC -- but it docked safely.

Low earth orbit is no longer a NASA mission. That's the best space news in decades. Should have done this years ago. The Shuttle was always a bucket of bolts with no clear mission other than to put humans in low earth orbit, something NASA didn't need the Shuttle to prove they could do with relative safety. In fact, the Shuttle made a shambles of that safety record.

Let private enterprise do low earth orbit stuff. Let NASA do the cutting edge stuff, and continue the manned explorations beyond low orbit.

I wish these guys lots of luck.