The crew aboard the International Space Station continue to unpack more than 11,000 pounds of critical spares, food and supplies delivered Sept. 18 by a Cygnus XL commercial resupply mission. The arrival of the Cygnus XL to the space station was delayed by one day, due to changes in the rendezvous planning resulting from the main spacecraft engine shutting down early on two burns on Sept. 16.
Northrop Grumman’s engineering and operations, in close coordination with NASA, immediately began to evaluate the Cygnus XL engine burn and worked very closely with the agency to develop a new burn plan. The Northrop Grumman team soon discovered a conservative safeguard in the spacecraft software settings that triggered an early warning and safe shutdown of the engine. Teams adjusted the burn durations and resumed a new series of rendezvous burns to continue Cygnus XL’s approach toward the space station.
All subsequent burns were executed perfectly, allowing for the safe delivery of the spacecraft with no impact to station operations.
“NASA’s workforce remains strong and dedicated to safely working alongside our partners to ensure mission success. Commercial partnerships we pioneered in low Earth orbit are moving farther into the solar system with NASA, including at the Moon and Mars,” said NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya. “I’m incredibly proud of our joint mission teams who demonstrated their toughness and competence to solve issues when they arose – these values will propel America forward in our Golden Age of innovation and exploration.”
NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 crew member Jonny Kim, currently living and working aboard the space station, echoed that sentiment and embraced the newly devised plan to welcome Cygnus XL’s arrival.
“A big congratulations to the NASA and Cygnus teams for a successful Cygnus launch, rendezvous, and capture. Adapting and overcoming unforeseen challenges is something we do at NASA and I’m very proud to be a part of this team,” said NASA astronaut Jonny Kim. Cygnus will remain at the space station until spring when it departs the orbiting laboratory at which point it will dispose of several thousand pounds of debris through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will harmlessly burn up.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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