Orbital Sciences’ unpiloted Cygnus resupply craft will make a second attempt to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station early Sept. 29, management teams from NASA and the Dulles, Va.,-based company decided Sept. 27. The latest operations plan would position Cygnus, with its 1,543-lb. cargo of crew provisions, about 35 ft. below the orbiting science lab at 7:15 a.m. EDT, for an astronaut-commanded robot arm grapple.

Chinese Confusion: Ma Xingrui, administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), tells the 64th International Astronautical Congress that his country is ready to join the International Space Exploration Group, a multinational organization of space agencies developing road maps for human exploration of the Solar System. But according to the ISEGC Terms of Reference, CNSA is “automatically” a member because it helped draft the 2007 framework document on which the organization was based.

China’s new medium-heavy space launcher, Long March 7, is very likely to fly in 2014, says an industry official, confirming a delayed target announced six months ago.

Resumption of rendezvous activities begun

Chinese engineers are working on a hydrogen-fueled rocket engine almost three times the size of their current largest powerplant in that category. But the work is only at an early stage. The engine, which would develop thrust of 200 metric (440,000 lb.) thrust, exists as a concept or preliminary design. So far, developers are tackling critical technologies and have not built parts of a serviceable engine, says Zhang Nan, president of the Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Institute.

With the successful debut of its Epsilon rocket last week, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is advancing incremental improvements to the new solid-fueled launcher with commercial customers in mind. “We are taking a two-step development plan to launch a low-cost, high-performance Epsilon,” says Yasuhiro Morita, Epsilon program manager at JAXA. “We are aiming at the commercial market after the establishment of the next-generation Epsilon, and I hope to be very competitive.”

China is eager to collaborate with Russia or Europe to use its Shenzhou human spacecraft and perhaps a planned cargo carrier to support the International Space Station, even as it works toward starting a Mir-class station of its own by 2020.

Orbital Science Corp.’s Cygnus resupply capsule will loiter in orbit until at least Sept. 28, permitting Russia to proceed with an upcoming three-man Soyuz crew transport mission to the International Space Station, before making a second attempt at a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) program rendezvous and grapple demonstration, NASA and the Dulles, Va., based company announced Sept. 23.