The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
NASA/Bill IngallsThe first self-proclaimed nation in space will have to wait at least one more day to get off the ground.
An Orbital ATK rocket and Cygnus capsule carrying Asgardia-1, the cubesat that comprises the entirety of the digital country Asgardia’s territory, was forced to abort its launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Saturday when an aircraft strayed into restricted airspace nearby.
The launch, which was also set to resupply the International Space Station, was scrubbed at the last minute when an unidentified aircraft “was detected in the vicinity of the launch pad,” according to NASA.
Asgardia-1 is one of over a dozen toaster-sized cubesats that will be deployed from the Cygnus capsule by NanoRacks after its monthlong stop at the ISS. The small satellite is essentially a file server carrying Asgardia’s constitution and various files uploaded by “citizens” of the nation, which currently exists more as a sort of online club but has plans to eventually build human settlements in space, on the moon and beyond.
The rocket carrying the nation/satellite will attempt to launch again Sunday morning at 4:14 a.m. PT.
