Launch on ULA Atlas V is slated for December 3, 2015. It’s due to lift off Thursday with 7,400 pounds of station supplies.
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The launch team tried repeatedly to get the Atlas off the pad repeatedly throughout the course of the 30-minute launch window – but the weather would not relent.
But poor weather at the seaside Florida launch site forced ULA to postpone the launch. Forecasters predicted a 60 percent chance of favorable weather.
Astronaut Scott J. Kelly has been on a year long, record-setting mission on the Space Station, and the items sent will help him and other members aboard the space station continue their research- including solving problems that future crews may face as they prepare for a future journey to Mars.
Kirk Shireman, NASA’s ISS program manager, who also took part in the briefing, called the failures “growing pains” in what he said was “a transition period”.
Orbital is launching the Cygnus from Cape Canaveral this time. “It also signifies and represents the return-to-flight of no less than five STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] experiments that were lost on those launch anomalies”. Thursday’s launch is scheduled to use a Saturn V rocket purchased from United Launch Alliance, a commercial competitor. This will be its first launch since in 2014 disaster. The company’s own Antares rocket is still not done being reconfigured after a dramatic launch explosion previous year.
Two of the last four commercial supply runs, contracted by NASA, have failed. SpaceX plans to resume flights in January, the news service said. It had the last US resupply success, back in April.
Sophisticated science experiments, ready-made food, a jet pack for spacewalking astronauts and even a satellite made by elementary school students are all on board. Stiffening of the arteries on Earth is linked to aging and physical inactivity. The proposition will be tested today when a U.S. rocket attempts to fly almost four tons (3.5 metric tons) of food and supplies to the six residents of humanity’s orbital outpost.
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“Right now we are focused on the success of this mission and getting the cargo to the space station”. Once it reaches the space station, the facility will be able to incubate organisms such as bacteria, yeast, algae, fungi and animal cells for study in space’s unique conditions. A short circuit knocked out one of eight power channels in mid-November. The first component of the space station was launched on November 20, 1998. “You’re always a little nervous, but highly confident”, Pinkston told the AP.
