Gonzalo delays ISS cargo launch

The powerful Hurricane Gonzalo has delayed the next launch of International Space Station cargo for at least a few days.

The Category 3 storm on Friday hit Bermuda, the site of a tracking station required for Orbital Sciences Corp.'s launches from Wallops Island, Va.

As the storm approached, Orbital pushed back its planned launch of an Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo craft from this Friday[JD: OCT. 24] to no earlier than Oct. 27.

"However, depending on the impact of the storm on Bermuda's essential infrastructure systems such as transportation, power and communications, the launch date could be moved later," Orbital said in an online update last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship that launched Sept. 21 from Cape Canaveral is due to depart the ISS around 11 a.m. Tuesday, on its way to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean less than six hours later.

The Dragon will be packed with nearly 3,300 pounds of cargo and experiments. It is the only spacecraft flying today that can return large amounts of cargo to the ground.