With less than four hours remaining in the countdown, launch director Bill Cullen called off Saturday’s attempt to send an unmanned Atlas rocket soaring.
Advertisement
The rocket is carrying the OA-4 with the Cygnus spacecraft for Orbital ATK under the NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.
The lift-off of Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday was postponed “because of wind gusts that exceeded the weather criteria for launching”, Xinhua quoted NASA as saying in a launch blog. Technical troubles had bumped the late afternoon launch time to the last possible moment in the window; given the high odds of excessive wind, there seemed little reason to proceed. The weather is expected to improve, but still only 40 percent favorable. Thursday’s launch attempt was rained out.
Thorp and his team will try to launch the spacecraft once again on December 5 at 5:10PM EST.
The astronauts at the International Space Station need groceries, clothes, toiletries and other items. The launch will take place during a 10-minute window which begins at the aforementioned time.
The six space station astronauts have gone without USA shipments since April. Orbital ATK bought another company’s rocket, the veteran Atlas V, for this supply mission.
Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket explodes 6 seconds after liftoff, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, in Virginia.
Advertisement
Kelly and Kornienko are spending one year in space, twice the typical mission duration, to provide researchers the opportunity to advance their knowledge of the medical, psychological and biomedical challenges faced by astronauts during long-duration spaceflight. Two private companies hired by NASA to replenish the orbiting lab are stuck on Earth with grounded rockets.
