AlQa'dah 17, 1434, Sep 23, 2013, SPA -- A new commercial cargo vessel making its orbital debut experienced navigation system problems Sunday, and its arrival at the International Space Station (ISS) was delayed at least two days. The docking was aborted less than six hours before the scheduled arrival of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Cygnus capsule, loaded with 590 kilograms of food and clothes for the space-station crew. The U.S. company said it already has developed a software repair. The new software will be tested on Earth before it is transmitted to the Cygnus and tested again. If all proceeds well, the capsule will make a docking attempt early Tuesday. Because it is on a test flight, the Cygnus is carrying nothing valuable or urgent. If necessary, the capsule could orbit the world for weeks or months before docking at the ISS. Orbital Sciences is the second private company to launch supplies to the space station. In 2012, SpaceX began accomplishing that task for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The U.S. space agency is paying the two companies to deliver goods to the orbiting laboratory in the absence of its retired space-shuttle program.
