Three weeks ago, NASA revealed that a shipping container that was protected a cygnus spacecraft “damage” while traveling to the launch location in Florida.
Built by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is one of the two Western spacecraft that is currently able to deliver food, water, experiments and other supplies to the international space station. This specific Cygnus mission, NG-22, was planned for June. As part of his statement at the beginning of March, the Space Agency said it evaluated the NG-22 Cygnus Cargo Supply Mission together with Northrop.
On Wednesday, after a question from Ars Technica, the space agency acknowledged that the Cygnus spacecraft that is designated for NG-22 is too damaged for flying, at least in the short term.
Dragon Loading
“After the first evaluation there is also damage to the freight module,” the agency said in a statement. “The International Space Station program will continue to collaborate with Northrop Grumman to assess whether the Cygnus freight module can safely fly to the space station on a future flight.” That future flight, NG-23, will not launch earlier than this fall.
As a result, NASA changes the load on its next freight to the space station, the 32nd SpaceX Cargo Dragon Mission, due to launch in April. The agency says that “more useful supplies and food will add to guarantee sufficient reserves of supplies on board the station” to the Dragon vehicle.
While the stopgap measures are approaching, an option that is available for NASA can be trying in a freight mission on the spacecraft of Boeing in Boeing. After the propulsion problems on Starliner's first crew flight to the space station last June, NASA is still evaluating whether the vehicle can be certified for an operational crew mission, or whether it would be better to carry out a detailed test flight.
