This comes after two planned engine firings shut down prematurely, NASA said, putting the Cygnus cargo ship's approach to the space station on hold.

The new jumbo version of Cygnus delivered about 11,000 pounds of cargo to the orbiting lab this morning (Sept. 18).

The damage occurred during the shipment of the spacecraft's pressurized cargo module from its manufacturer in Italy. While Northrop Grumman hopes to repair the module and launch it on a future flight, officials decided it would be quicker to move forward with the next spacecraft in line for launch this month.

NASA on Wednesday night resumed plans to moor an uncrewed cargo craft to the International Space Station after resolving an early engine-shutdown issue it said was caused by a "conservative safeguard" in the vehicle's software settings.