A Northrop Grumman rocket carrying more than 4 tons of supplies to the International Space Station will have to wait at least a day for launch after a fire alarm at its mission control center thwarted its takeoff early Sunday (November 6).
The Antares rocket was about 10 minutes away from the planned 5:50 a.m. EDT (1050 GMT) liftoff from NASA. Wallops Flight Facility On Wallops Island, Virginia, when Northrop Grumman Flight canceled. A fire alarm at the company’s control center in nearby Dallas, Virginia, forced the evacuation of the building, preventing launch controllers from passing through the launch.
“Our thoughts are with their team, their safety is our top priority, so we’ll try again tomorrow,” NASA spokeswoman Chelsea Ballart said during a live commentary. Liftoff is now set for Monday, November 6 at 5:27AM ET (1027 GMT). Could you Watch the launch of Cygnus merchandise live on Space.comCourtesy of NASA TV, starting at 5 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT).
Northrop Grumman will use the Antares missile to launch an unmanned NG-18 Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station on a mission to deliver more than 8,200 pounds (3,720 kilograms) of supplies to the lab’s astronaut crew. It is the 18th cargo mission for NASA by Northrop Grumman.
Related: Northrop Grumman’s Antares Rocket: 5 Surprising Facts
The upcoming launch is also Northrop Grumman’s heaviest delivery to date, as the company is pressing about 44 lb (20 kg) of additional supplies due to improvements to the launch system. Among its prized payload is a bioprinter that will attempt to print human knee cartilage in space and cow ovary cells to study how weightlessness affects cell growth.
If all goes well, the NG-18 Cygnus cargo ship – which was It was called SS Sally Ride In honor of the astronaut Sally RideThe first American woman in space who died in 2012He should arrive at the space station on Wednesday (November 10).
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