The latest commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station blasted off from Cape Canaveral Sunday afternoon with a hefty load of nearly 8,000 pounds of much-needed food, sundries, hardware and science experiments. If the Orbital ATK capsule arrives at the space station Wednesday as planned, it will represent the first US delivery since spring.
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There have been three failed attempts since Thursday last week and after launch windows delayed on Thursday and Friday, launch directors and managers have only been anticipating a 20 percent chance of good weather conditions and made a decision to stop the countdown three hours before the countdown on Saturday before fueling the Atlas V rocket of United Launch Alliance.
The launch marks Orbital’s fourth scheduled mission to the orbiting outpost, as part of a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to deliver necessities to the astronauts living in space. That rocket won’t be ready until next year, the company said, so it contracted with the United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to use its Atlas V for Sunday’s launch.
The US’ NASA agency has given commercial aerospace companies the contracts to supply the ISS.
Atlas V rocket on the Space Launch Complex-41 launchpad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. If today’s launch is also scrubbed, it’s time for the mission planners to get very creative. USA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren would use the station’s robotic arm to grab the Cygnus and berth it.
Today’s launch was the ninth and final Atlas 5 flight of the year, the 12th and last for United Launch Alliance in 2015.
Mission Description:Cygnus is a low-risk design incorporating elements drawn from Orbital ATK and its partners’ existing, flight-proven spacecraft technologies.
A second Atlas 5 will launch in 100 days, around March 10, with another Cygnus resupply mission to deliver a further 7,700 pounds of payload. NASA aims to keep a six-month supply of food aboard and is now down to a four-month cushion. The vehicle is also carrying Microsoft HoloLens headsets that will let experts on Earth help station crewmembers with complicated tasks (originally set to be sent on the failed SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launch in June) and a safety jetpack for spacewalks.
This is the first flight of an enhanced Cygnus spacecraft to the station.
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A Russian Progress ship was also lost after launch in April, but ISS program managers said the astronauts were never in danger and still have several months of supplies in storage. “Over 25% more than our previous missions and it’s our first time launching on an Atlas V rocket”, explained DeMauro to Observer.
