A Nortrop Gruman The launch of the Antares rocket carrying NASA’s 4 tons of cargo for the International Space Station was halted just before liftoff on Thursday (October 1).
The rocket was less than three minutes from the lift when NASA’s pad was sitting on top of 0A. Wallops flight facility On Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch was targeted at 9:43 pm EDT (0143 GMT on October 2).
“We have an abortion, no launch tonight,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias said in a live mission commentary.
The countdown flight controllers temporarily cleared the area around the launch pad to allow a boat into the woods within the keep-out area, and the clock was moving smoothly until just before liftoff. That pause led to a five-minute delay in launch time, shifting from the EDT target at 9:33 pm to 9:43 pm. The abortion occurred 2 minutes 40 seconds before liftoff after the number resumed.
The abortion was started due to an “unknown problem” of the land assist equipment Antares rocket Or the unknown Cygnus cargo ship climbs on top of it, Navias said.
If Nortrop Grumman can quickly determine what caused the miscarriage, the company could launch the Cygnus cargo ship for NASA on Friday night (October 2). The EDT (0116 GMT) liftoff will take place at 9:16 that night.
You can watch the launch live here EDT (0100 GMT) starting at 8:45 pm on the homepage of space.com, if a Friday attempt goes ahead. You can too Watch it live here from NASA TV.
Cygnus NG-14 cargo ship Carries 7,624 pts. (3,458 kg) Food, distribution, and test hardware for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. It’s important A new space toilet, Called the Universal Waste Management System.
As its name suggests, the Cynus NG-14 is NASA’s 14th cargo mission to the Northrop Gruman Antares / Cygnus duo. One of the two companies (Space X and the other) is currently flying uncrowded cargo missions to the space station for NASA on multi-billion dollar contracts.
Cygnus names the NG-14 spacecraft SS Command Chawla In honor of the astronaut Command Chawla2003 Colombia dies along with six other astronauts in a space crash.
Thursday night marked the fifth abortion of a U.S. rocket launch last week and the third abortion in 24 hours. Blue Origin’s Suborbital New Shepherd Rocket on September 24 Power failure In an inaugural attempt. Special attempts to launch the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV heavy rocket and two SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets have been delayed.
Wednesday night (September 30), URA Delta IV Heavy Rocket carries the classified NRL-44 gray satellite A launch aborted Moments before the planned liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Thursday morning, a SpaceX has discontinued the Falcon 9 rocket on its own Due to a ground sensor problem while attempting to launch 60 Starlink Internet satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center near the Air Force Station.
Another Falcon 9 rocket launch for SpaceX is scheduled for Friday night to launch the GPS III SV04 navigation satellite into US military orbit. The mission, which was delayed due to weather and scheduling, will now launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 9:43 p.m. Within 30 minutes of Nortrop Grumman’s NG-14 mission, it was Friday night when it went up.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him tariqjmalik. Follow us on pSpacedotcom, Facebook, Instagram.
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