Space is Hard - So Is Getting There

Word started to get around yesterday evening that a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo module was damaged in transit to the Cape Canaveral launch site.  The actual incident that caused the damage hasn't been talked about, but while the damage occurred three weeks ago, it took some questions and followup from Ars Technica to get the story that the Cygnus module isn't flyable; at least for now. 

Built by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is one of two Western spacecraft currently capable of delivering food, water, experiments, and other supplies to the International Space Station. This particular Cygnus mission, NG-22, had been scheduled for June. As part of its statement in early March, the space agency said it was evaluating the NG-22 Cygnus cargo supply mission along with Northrop.

On Wednesday, after a query from Ars Technica, the space agency acknowledged that the Cygnus spacecraft designated for NG-22 is too damaged to fly, at least in the near term.

The ISS program office has said that the Cygnus might be repairable and usable, but it won't be ready for a June launch.  The mission has been renamed NG-23 and is currently "penciled in" with a No Earlier Than date of "this fall."  

There are only two American spacecraft currently accepted for flying cargo missions to the Space Station: Northrop Grumman's Cygnus  and SpaceX's Cargo Dragon.  Both have been flying routinely since the start of commercial cargo services.  The next cargo mission to the ISS has been scheduled to be a Cargo Dragon currently set for Monday, April 21, well before dawn.  

As a result of the damage to the NG-22 Cygnus and the possibility of a prolonged impact to the necessary deliveries, NASA is modifying the cargo on this cargo flight.  The agency says it will "add more consumable supplies and food to help ensure sufficient reserves of supplies aboard the station" to the Dragon vehicle.  Given how these cargo drones seem to be loaded "to the gills" that implies that some stuff may be left on the ground to make room for more food and "expendable" supplies.  

This raises an interesting possibility: making Starliner's next test flight a cargo delivery.  As has been talked about recently here, there's discussion of whether Starliner's next mission should be crewed or not.  Using Starliner's test flight presents a very reasonable alternative, not crewed, but able to test everything Starliner needs to do as it ferries cargo to the ISS.  The drawback is that Starliner would be competing with SpaceX crew missions for docking ports, and there would be limited time frames when the vehicle could fly.

File photo of the Cygnus about to be grabbed by the robotic arm of the ISS so that the ISS crew can guide it to the docking port.  

Before you ask, the Sierra Space Dream Chaser is another cargo ship that had been scheduled for its next flight this May but isn't ready to fly.  It will be launched by the ULA Vulcan mentioned yesterday, but there isn't one available to launch Dream Chaser.  That looks to be later in the year than that "NET this fall" NG-23 Cygnus mission.  

As a result of Dream Chaser's delays, Starliner's problems, and the dropped Cygnus, NASA is now almost entirely reliant on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to get its astronauts to the space station and to feed them.

Crew Dragon remains the only vehicle certified by NASA for human flights to the station. On the cargo side, Northrop Grumman is developing a new rocket with Firefly, but in the meantime, has been using the Falcon 9 to launch Cygnus. With Cygnus now sidelined for at least half a year, every non-Russian vehicle flying to the space station will be built by SpaceX.

Details of exactly what happened to this Cygnus are limited, except that indented paragraph just above (direct quote from Ars) used the word "dropped."  Perhaps we should say, "Space is hard and so is concrete."