A short time ago, the International Space Station Blog shared the exciting news that the NG-23 cargo vehicle carrying Hēki has been cleared to proceed to the ISS:
NASA, Northrop Grumman “Go” to Proceed with Cygnus XL Station Arrival
From the blog:
On Sept. 16, Cygnus XL commanded the main engine to shutdown earlier than planned during two, non-sequential rendezvous burns (delta velocity burns 3 and 5), designed to raise the orbit of the spacecraft for rendezvous with the space station. Cygnus XL’s trajectory placed the spacecraft a safe distance behind the space station while engineers assessed the spacecraft and developed its alternate burn plan. Data shared by the spacecraft confirmed that Cygnus XL operated as intended during two planned maneuvers when an early warning system initiated a shutdown command and ended the main engine burn because of a conservative safeguard in the software settings.
A brief summary: after a data review, the engineering team found that the NG-23 vehicle is functioning as expected. Setting safety limits conservatively – and loosening them as a new system is better understood and characterised – is a standard practice in my experience and logical approach to avoid more serious issues.
The updated arrival time is now scheduled for 18 Sep, 07:18 Eastern (US)/18 Sep 23:18 (NZ). Please continue to check the International Space Station Blog and the Hēki blog for updates.
Header image caption: NG-23 arriving at the ISS after a short delay. Credit: NASA
Paihau—Robinson Space Blog 
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