Prior launch attempts on Thursday and Friday were also scrubbed.
Advertisement
Shipper Orbital ATK is using another company’s rocket, the venerable Atlas V, for this grocery run. Given the wind concerns, managers were considering the option of waiting until Sunday for slightly better weather.
The third weather delay in a row forced another cancellation of the… Two private companies contracted by NASA to replenish the orbiting lab are stuck on Earth with grounded rockets. It would be the first time Orbital ATK had launched one of its resupply missions from Cape Canaveral.
Top image: Atlas V rocket with Cygnus on board awaiting launch. Those conditions deteriorated to a 30 percent before falling to a 10-percent chance of favorable weather at launch time.
Cygnus, carrying more than 3,500 kilograms of supplies, equipment and experiments for the ISS on a mission designated OA-4, will arrive at the station on December 9 if it launches December 5.
Russia also lost a supply ship earlier this year but has since picked up the slack, along with Japan and a Russian resupply mission is scheduled just before Christmas.
The Cygnus spacecraft for the OA-4 mission is the first to employ the longer, “enhanced”, PCM which can carry a greater volume of cargo than the PCM flown on previous missions, and lightweight UltraFlex arrays developed and built by Orbital ATK’s Goleta, California, facility.
Without further setbacks, space station program manager Kirk Shireman expects the food supply to be fully restocked a year from now.
Advertisement
The payload is a Cygnus space capsule containing supplies for the International Space Station. SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to restart station deliveries in January with its Falcon rockets.
![Watch the Second Attempt to Launch Cygnus to the Space Station [LIVE]](http://lidtime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Dangerously-windy-again-for-la.jpg "Watch the Second Attempt to Launch Cygnus to the Space Station [LIVE]")
