Yes — I confess. I am a nerd. I set an alarm and woke, at about 2:05 am local — and watched it from my iPhone (complete with NASA-TV screen grabs at right).

I am very pleased to report that the slight delay in firing the engines did not affect the mission in any lasting way. Here’s the latest:

…Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft installation on the International Space Station is complete at 5:33 a.m. EDT.

The spacecraft carried 8,200 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory for Northrop Grumman’s 21st commercial resupply mission for NASA.

The mission launched at 11:02 a.m. Aug. 4 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Cygnus will remain at the space station until January when it departs the orbiting laboratory at which point it will dispose of several thousand pounds of debris through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will harmlessly burn up….

Onward — grinning….

नमस्ते

Updated, 08.05.2024 — 4 PM EDT: “…The Cygnus spacecraft has completed two delta velocity burns, and it remains on track for a capture by the space station’s robotic arm slated for 3:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The spacecraft is in a safe trajectory, and all other systems are operating normally.

Shortly after launch on Sunday, the spacecraft performed as designed by cancelling a scheduled engine burn due to a slightly low initial pressure reading flagged by the Cygnus onboard detection system. Engineers at Northrop Grumman’s mission control center in Dulles, Virginia evaluated the pressure reading, confirmed it was acceptable and re-worked the burn plan to arrive at the space station on the originally planned schedule….” End, updated portion.

. . .Shortly after launch, the spacecraft missed its first burn slated for 11:44 a.m. due to a late entry to burn sequencing. Known as the targeted altitude burn, or TB1, it was rescheduled for 12:34 p.m., but aborted the maneuver shortly after the engine ignited due to a slightly low initial pressure state.

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft completed the deployment of its two solar arrays at 2:21 p.m. EDT after launching at 11:02 a.m. Aug. 4 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to the International Space Station for NASA…. The team aims to achieve the spacecraft’s original capture time on station, which is currently slated for 3:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6….

Space is… hard. It leaves me again marvelling, at all the Apollo missions, and most of the Mercury ones… that went off exactly as drawn up. Amazing — those were wildly-capable engineers, without a doubt. More, after the snag is completed –by / on Wed. morning. Onward.

नमस्ते