NASA's latest cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has encountered problems en route to the orbiting outpost.
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Northrop Grumman's Cygnus launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1502 UTC on August 4. It was the second of three Falcon 9 launches booked by Northrop Grumman while a new engine is being developed for its Antares rocket. .
The Falcon 9 first stage landed successfully, and the unmanned Cygnus cargo ship, named after Francis R "Dick" Scobee, a NASA astronaut who died in the Challenger accident, entered orbit.
But then things started to go a bit wrong. According to NASA, the spacecraft missed its first burn, "Targeted Altitude Burn" or TB1, "due to a late entry to burn sequencing." The burn was rescheduled for 50 minutes later "but aborted the maneuver shortly after engine ignition due to a somewhat low initial pressure condition."
