Monica Jackson
Northrop Grumman has postponed the launch of NASA‘s Ionospheric Connection Explorer spacecraft atop the Pegasus XL space vehicle to further assess the rocket after it sent off-nominal data during the ferry flight.
The Falls Church, Va.-based firm said Friday it will test the Orbital ATK rocket back at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The spaceflight mission was originally scheduled for June 14 from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Northrop and NASA have yet to determine a new launch date and will wait for the results of further testing
ICON is designed to study a portion of the Earth’s atmosphere where terrestrial weather meets space weather in order to determine the physics of the space environment.
