Scott Nicholas
NASA has postponed Orbital ATK‘s next cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station to address booster problems on the launch vehicle that will be used to launch a company-built spacecraft, Space News reported Wednesday.
Space News’ Jeff Foust quoted Robyn Gatens, deputy director of NASA’s ISS division, as saying the investigation on the booster engine for the Cygnus OA-7 mission will push back the launch no sooner than mid-April.
The OA-7 spacecraft was originally scheduled to launch in mid-March aboard a United Launch Alliance-built Atlas 5 rocket but the liftoff was delayed for several days due to a hydraulic issue in the rocket’s first stage and a technical problem with ground support equipment.
Foust reported the delay of the OA-7 launch will also affect a spacewalk initially scheduled to take place on the station in the first week of April.
The mission will deliver supplies to the ISS as part of along with an avionics box that astronauts Peggy Whitson and Thomas Pesquet will install on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory, according to the report.
Orbital ATK’s sixth cargo delivery mission, designated OA-5, delivered nearly 5,300 pounds of supplies, laboratory equipment and scientific experiments to the space station in November as part of the company’s Commercial Resupply Services-1 contract.
