Cygnus launch to ISS scrubbed as NASA considers schedule changes for future cargo missions – SpaceNews

Up so far 8: 35 p.m. Eastern with unique open date.

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — A technical field scrubbed a scheduled Feb. 9 open a Cygnus cargo mission to the Global Location Save of residing as NASA is alive to about adjustments to the schedule of future cargo missions and science activities on the position given uncertainties about the scale of the position’s crew.

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket was scheduled to prefer off from Pad 0-A the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at 5: 39 p.m. Eastern Feb. 9, carrying a Cygnus spacecraft on a mission designated NG-13. On the other hand, the open was first pushed to the cease of its five-minute window, and then scrubbed a diminutive while before the revised open time.

NASA and Northrop Grumman talked about about three hours after the scrub that the open was postponed thanks to “off-nominal readings from a floor crimson meat up sensor.” The open has been rescheduled for Feb. 13 at 4: 06 p.m. Eastern thanks to both time to staunch the field and depressed weather in the forecast.

The Cygnus is carrying 3,633 kilograms of cargo, including about 1,600 kilograms of automobile hardware and nearly 1,000 kilograms of science payloads. Crew supplies and completely different tools assert the relaxation of the cargo on the spacecraft.

As NASA reschedules this cargo mission, the agency could presumably well very effectively be shifting future missions spherical as effectively to replica the location of the position’s crew. By April, the position can salvage most attention-grabbing a 3-person crew, including a single NASA astronaut, Chris Cassidy, for doubtlessly several months. Uncertainty about when industrial crew autos will waft, and the duration of their missions, has created challenges for planning the resources wanted for the position and the science that will presumably well very effectively be performed there.

“We are discussing doubtlessly the most attention-grabbing cadence on which to open the cargo missions, and one component is when we’ll salvage crewmembers on board,” talked about Ven Feng, supervisor of NASA’s ISS Transportation Integration Location of job. The schedule of financial crew autos as well to plans to total science investigations on the position are key elements in that planning.

“We’re making an are trying to space ourselves to salvage doubtlessly the most flexibility that you need to to presumably well presumably judge to rep doubtlessly the most and top quality science carried out as we hope to stamp our industrial crew automobile come a while this yr,” he talked about.

Feng talked about that Northrop has carried out a “tall” job demonstrating its capability to waft earlier than planned for the NG-13 mission. “We could presumably well simply pull on that again in the shut to future,” he talked about. Northrop officers at Wallops talked about the next Cygnus mission, NG-14, is tentatively scheduled for October but could presumably well simply be moved up to August.

SpaceX’s next cargo Dragon mission, CRS-20, is scheduled for open March 2, and could presumably well simply be the final of that model of the spacecraft. The company will originate the utilization of a model of its Crew Dragon spacecraft for future cargo missions below its unique Commercial Resupply Products and services 2 contract with the CRS-21 mission no earlier than August.

The diminished crew size can even have an effect on science on the position. A Nov. 14 checklist by NASA’s Location of job of Inspector General concluded that with most attention-grabbing one NASA astronaut on board, the quantity of science carried out on the position would drop from an average of about 35 hours every week to factual 5.5 hours.

“We’re taking that into story,” talked about Heidi Parris, assistant program scientist for the ISS program at NASA. “We’re talking with our researchers, we’re talking with completely different funding sponsors, and making positive that all people understands the field.”

Parris talked about that some experiments on the position don’t require crew time. “These are surely functional in a time admire this when we’re no longer going to salvage rather a lot of crew time on hand,” she talked about. There’s also “reserve science” that astronauts can carry out when they’re in a local to liberate time in their schedules.

“We’re doing the total lot that we can to encourage doing as great science as that you need to to presumably well presumably judge all the procedure thru this deficit in crew time,” she talked about.