Biggest Cygnus Cargo Ship Delayed on Its Way to the ISS Due to Engine Shutdown

Northrop Grumman’s upgraded Cygnus XL vehicle experienced an engine issue on Tuesday, delaying its arrival to the International Space Station until further notice. This is the first flight of the larger version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft, which is carrying 11,000 pounds of science investigations, food, supplies, and equipment to the space station’s crew.

The cargo ship launched on Sunday at 6:11 p.m. ET on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Cygnus XL was scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday, but flight controllers are currently evaluating an alternative burn, or maneuvering, plan for the cargo resupply mission, NASA announced.

Ship interrupted

On its way to the ISS, Cygnus XL’s main engine “stopped earlier than planned during two burns designed to raise the orbit of the spacecraft for rendezvous with the space station,” the space agency wrote. All other systems on the spacecraft are performing nominally, but the engine failure interrupted the intricate process of rendezvousing with the ISS.

Unlike SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship that autonomously docks with the space station, Cygnus requires the giant, Canadian-built robotic arm attached to the ISS, named Canadarm2, to grab it. Once it’s captured, the robotic arm will install the spacecraft on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port, where it is set to remain attached to the ISS until March 2026.

The Cygnus cargo ship will no longer arrive at the ISS as scheduled. Instead, NASA and Northrop Grumman are currently reviewing a new arrival date and time as teams work on resolving the engine burn issue.

Big boy

This was the first flight of the heftier version of the Cygnus cargo ship, featuring a longer, pressurized cargo module that can hold 33% more payload than its predecessor. With its bigger build, the spacecraft was able to carry the heaviest load of supplies ever delivered to the ISS.

The anticipated delivery would be Northrop Grumman’s 23rd cargo shipment to the ISS as part of its multi-billion dollar commercial resupply contract with NASA.

Last year, another of the company’s cargo ships ran into trouble while attempting to rendezvous with the ISS.

“Shortly after launch, the spacecraft missed its first burn due to a late entry to burn sequencing,” NASA wrote at the time. “Known as the targeted altitude burn, or TB1, it was rescheduled but aborted shortly after the engine ignited due to a slightly low initial pressure state.” The issue was resolved, and the Cygnus spacecraft ended up at the space station during its original arrival time.