NASA launch mission to ISS scrubbed after fire alarm goes off in mission control room

Northrop Grumman has decided to stand down from the launch of Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) owing to a fire incident in the mission control room. Named the SS Sally Ride, Cygnus was scheduled to lift off for the space station as part of the 18th cargo resupply (CR18) mission for NASA at 4:20 pm IST. The mission will be carried out on Northrop's Antares 230+ rocket mounted with the Cygnus spacecraft that is carrying over 3,700 kg of cargo.

While the weather was 90% favourable, the mission was scrubbed just 11 minutes before liftoff as the teams could not prepare for the launch in the available time. 

"We stood down from the attempt not because there was something wrong with the rocket. The countdown was performing nominally," the mission commentator said during the live feed. "However, there was an issue in the Northrop Grumman Cygnus control room in Dulles, Virginia. They experienced a fire alarm and the personnel had to evacuate the building unable to catch the launch today," the commentator added.

In an update, NASA revealed that the next launch attempt is on November 7 during a five-minute window that opens at 3:57 pm IST and the weather will be 75% as per the current forecast. "High pressure looks to continue to provide tranquil weather to the Mid-Atlantic before breezy conditions impact the Wallops area Tuesday," the agency said in a statement. 

About the CR18 mission

The CR18 mission will carry the Cygnus spacecraft named SS Sally Ride after NASA astronaut Sally Ride will carry 3,700 kg of cargo for the ISS residents. Cygnus is loaded with science experiments that will examine the effects of microgravity on plants, study the changes in bovine ovarian cells and advance the development of 3D printing of human cells for usage in space missions as well as on Earth.  

Cygnus also has three CubeSats as a secondary payload. These satellites are the first one from Zimbabwe-- ZIMSAT-1 -- and the first from Uganda named PEARLAFRICASAT-1. These two satellites with Japan's TAKA make up the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Project-5 (BIRDS-5 Project). It is a satellite constellation meant to perform multispectral observations of the Earth and for in-orbit demonstration of a high-energy electronic measuring instrument (PINO).