Good Monday morning, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero.
Before the rain Sunday, I hope you got to enjoy the exciting launch which included a sonic boom from the booster landing here at the Cape. After a successful liftoff, however, the spacecraft a Falcon 9 rocket was carrying had some trouble.
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NASA says shortly after launch, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus, which has flown supplies and science to the International Space Station 20 times before, missed its first burn maneuver toward a rendezvous with the orbiting laboratory. The astronauts waiting to receive those tons of cargo include the Starliner crew, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who unexpectedly have now had to spend two months in orbit, and therefore could probably really use the new clothes packed for them on Cygnus. (Ironically, missing this same kind of burn is what caused Starliner to come home without getting to the space station during its first uncrewed flight test in 2019.)
In this case, though, NASA says it can still get Cygnus to its destination. The spacecraft, fortunately, was still able to deploy its solar arrays and NASA says there doesn’t appear to be any engine problems (despite missing two burns in total). A news release now says, “Northrop Grumman engineers are working a new burn and trajectory plan.”
And while the statement doesn’t put into layman’s terms what caused the burn failures, when astronaut Matt Dominick, who will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm, asked for an update this morning, NASA told him the spacecraft should still arrive tomorrow.
“OK, superb, we’re really looking forward to that,” Dominick replied.
I’m sure Butch and Suni are “really looking forward” to some fresh clothes!
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👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!