The Atlas V launch vehicle lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying a Cygnus resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Advertisement
The mission also marks Orbital’s first launch from Florida, and the first cargo mission to the ISS from American soil since SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was lost in June.
The Atlas soared through clouds and, 21 minutes later, ended up placing the Cygnus cargo carrier in the flawless orbit. “Everything looks great in this early stage of the mission”.
While we’d rather the launch was late and safe than now but exploded all over the landscape, it can be awfully hard to be patient during these countdowns!
After a two day orbital chase the Cygnus spacecraft will be grappled with the Canadian robotic arm by the station crew at approximately 6:10 a.m. on Wednesday, December 9.
Like most Orbital ATK spacecraft, Cygnus is compatible with multiple launch vehicles.
“Back in the saddle”, rocket maker United Launch Alliance’s president, Tory Bruno, said in a tweet.
The launch of an upgraded Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft with more than 7,000 lb. of supplies for the International Space Station moves the orbiting outpost back toward its normal stock of consumables and gives on-board scientific research a boost. After three days of high wind and cloudy skies delayed the launch, the first USA shipment of space station supplies since spring took off Sunday.
The successful launch shortly before sunset was cheered as a sign that the company had rebounded from its failure previous year.
The Cygnus cargo includes almost 1,200 kilograms of crew supplies, topping up stockpiles of consumables there that, in some cases, have started to fall to low levels.
With six astronauts on board, the space station has dipped below NASA’s desired six-month food supply. Slayton was also a champion of America’s commercial space program.
The Cygnus system, which consists of a common service module and a pressurized cargo module, achieves high reliability by incorporating numerous elements from flight-proven spacecraft technologies. It uses avionics systems from Orbital ATK’s flight-proven LEOStar™ and GEOStar™ satellite product lines, plus propulsion and power systems from Orbital ATK’s GEOStar communications satellites. Ken has reported first hand from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, NASA Wallops, NASA Michoud/Stennis/Langley and on over 40 launches including 8 shuttle launches.
Orbital bought another company’s rocket, the veteran Atlas V, for this supply mission.
Atlas rockets are slated to send Boeing’s CRS-100 Starliner space taxi to the space station with astronauts aboard, starting as early as 2017.
The California-based SpaceX aims to resume deliveries next month, while Virginia’s Orbital hopes to get its Antares flying again in May, 1 ½ years after a devastating launch explosion.
Advertisement
The US’ NASA agency has given commercial aerospace companies the contracts to supply the ISS.
