Northrop Grumman cargo ship reaches International Space Station after engine challenge

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A provide ship arrived on the International Space Station on Thursday after a day’s delay because of a premature engine shutdown.

Astronauts used the house station’s robotic arm to pluck Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule from orbit as they soared over Africa.

The 11,000-pound (5,000-kilogram) cargo ought to have reached the house station Wednesday, three days after blasting off from Florida. But when the capsule tried to climb increased, its major engine shut down too quickly. Engineers traced the issue to an excessively conservative software program setting.

This is the primary flight of the extra-large model of the Cygnus, which is full of meals, science experiments and gear for the house station’s bathroom and different techniques. NASA holds contracts with Northrop Grumman in addition to SpaceX to maintain the orbiting lab effectively stocked. Russia additionally sends provides, and Japan is about to renew deliveries as effectively.

Northrop Grumman named its newest capsule the S.S. Willie McCool after the pilot of the doomed 2003 flight of house shuttle Columbia.

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