SS Kalpana Chawla Cygnus Spacecraft Launch From NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Scrubbed Minutes Ahead of Liftoff; Here's the Date And Time of the Next Launch Attempt

Virginia, October 1: US Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft, named after astronaut Kalpana Chawla, was to be launched from the Flight Facility. It was carrying cargo and supplies to International Space Station. However, it was scrubbed about 2 minutes and 40 seconds before liftoff due to an unknown problem with a component of ground support equipment.

The Liftoff was scheduled from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (controlled by NASA’s Wallops range) in Virginia on Thursday, 1 October at 21:38 EDT (Friday, 2 October at 01:38 UTC); however, an automatic abort at T-2 minutes 40 seconds due to an issue with a piece of Ground Support Equipment stopped the launch. US Spacecraft Named After Late Indian-American Astronaut Kalpana Chawla.

Launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility scrubbed:

To recap: Tonight's launch attempt for @NorthropGrumman's Antares rocket to send the #Cygnus resupply craft to the @Space_Station was scrubbed about 2 minutes and 40 seconds before liftoff due to an unknown problem with a component of ground support equipment.

— NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) October 2, 2020

Here's when the next launch attempt will be:

Pending a resolution of the problem at @NASA_Wallops, coverage for tomorrow's launch attempt will begin at 8:45pm ET. pic.twitter.com/aJtXSHydJC

— NASA (@NASA) October 2, 2020

Kalpana Chawla began her career at NASA in 1988 as a powered-lift computational fluid dynamics researcher at the Ames Research Center in California. She lost her life during the STS-107 mission when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentering the Earth's atmosphere.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 02, 2020 08:27 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).