Cosmic Revelations: Space Launch Frenzy, Mars Life Hints & Asteroid Near-Miss – This Week’s Space Highlights
New Cargo Ships and Space Station Updates First “Cygnus XL” arrives after scare: A tense 48 hours at the ISS ended in relief as Northrop Grumman’s upsized Cygnus XL freighter resolved its in-orbit propulsion glitch and received a “go” for final approach nasa.gov. The cargo ship’s main engine had shut off early during two orbit-raising burns on Sept. 16, delaying an arrival originally set for Sept. 17 space.com. Engineers quickly developed alternate maneuvers, and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim captured Cygnus with Canadarm2 early on Sept. 18, allowing the spacecraft to be installed on the station as planned nasa.gov. NASA noted all other systems performed normally