The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Saturday (IST) launched the US’ Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, named after late Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla, from its Wallops facility in Virginia. The launch came a day after it was scrubbed initially on Friday due to unknown reasons. 

“The Cygnus spacecraft is safely in orbit on its journey with nearly 8,000 pounds of cargo for the International Space Station,” an update on NASA’s website read, after the spacecraft separated safely from the Antares rocket which was carrying it.

The 14th rocket of Northrop Grumman bound for the International Space Station (ISS), the SS Kalpana Chawla Cygnus was launched at 9:16 pm  (ET) as per schedule. It will arrive at the ISS on October 5 in early morning, NASA said in a tweet.

“It was a spectacular launch. I don’t think you can ever get tired of watching these night launches,” said Kenneth Todd, program manager of the ISS.

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The spacecraft was scheduled to be launched from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on October 2 at 07:08 IST. However, it was scrubbed just about 2 minutes and 40 seconds before liftoff.

Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA will grapple Cygnus and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos will back him up.

Once secured, mission control in Houston will send ground commands for the station’s robotic arm to rotate and install it on the bottom of the station’s Unity module, NASA said.

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Cygnus will serve as a temporary scientific expansion to the ISS and perform Station orbit adjustment manoeuvres or burns. It is scheduled to remain at the station till mid-December.