Orbital Sciences Cargo Capsule Delays Rendezvous With Space Station - Wall Street Journal

A software problem forced Orbital Sciences Corp. to delay Sunday's planned rendezvous of its unmanned cargo capsule with the international space station for at least two days. The issue cropped up early in the morning as controllers in Virginia were set to monitor the delicate maneuvers that would have taken Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft through the last several hundred yards of its slow approach to the orbiting laboratory so astronauts on the space station could use a mechanical arm to grab and secure the Orbital vessel. The Dulles, Va., company is seeking to become the second commercial entity to transport cargo to the space station, following closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne, Calif. Orbital and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said company engineers planned to test a software "patch" and were developing a detailed plan for a rendezvous early Tuesday. Orbital also said all major subsystems on the spacecraft were operating as expected. The trouble came after what had appeared to be a seemingly flawless, four-day maiden flight of the Cygnus spacecraft, which blasted off from Wallops Island, Va., Wednesday morning. The capsule's thrusters worked as planned to position Cygnus for the final series of automated moves. The mission is a challenge for Orbital, which has invested more than five years and about $500 million of its own funds to develop a commercial-cargo capability. The mission also presents a test of NASA's plan to outsource all U.S. resupply missions to the space station. The agency has paid Orbital about $285 million to spur development of the Cygnus and the Antares rocket system. Space Exploration Technologies made history last year and attracted global attention by becoming the first commercial entity to transport cargo to the station. SpaceX, as the company is known, since has conducted two other successful cargo missions. A third flight scheduled for this month was delayed until early next year for technical reasons. Orbital got off to a slower start than its smaller rival in developing a new rocket and capsule and then had to overcome technical challenges and persistent launchpad-construction delays. But if the current demonstration mission goes well, Orbital could begin regular supply trips to the station as early as December under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA. NASA on Friday released a report laying out the benefits of scientific exploration aboard the $100 billion space station, which orbits roughly 250 miles above Earth. Prepared by the international consortium that runs the lab, the report says future experiments are expected to provide advances in power generation, energy storage, recycling, advanced robotics, medicine and computer software. The report says earlier experiments in space helped pave the way for implantable heart monitors, anticancer therapies, cellphone cameras and lightweight, heat-resistant alloys. The report also emphasizes that space exploration "is a catalyst for mutual understanding and trust" among nations. Having two reliable commercial-cargo transporters eventually is expected to reduce launch costs and enhance scientific endeavors aboard the station by expanding capacity to deliver experimental supplies. Russian officials have suggested that the station, parts of which date to the late 1990s, may be too creaky and expensive to maintain past the end of this decade. U.S. officials have said that they tentatively planned to keep the station functioning through 2028. Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFBjSY9q5q0pSzR07rN72qlewTmiw&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304213904579090840601411868.html

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