The spaceship was scheduled to launch on Thursday, but now the next opportunity will be on Friday. Although, this time the company orbital will be using rocket from another company United Launch Alliance to meet its contractual requirements with NASA.
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The International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, which will be used to rendezvous with the Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo ship.
The weather Friday, however, isn’t looking great for the second launch attempt.
Clouds and showers at Cape Canaveral, Florida, kept the Atlas from launching when the 30-minute window opened at 5:55 p.m. Eastern time. Although the space station is limping along on smaller loads of supplies provided by Japanese and European craft, the Orbital mission is carrying some much-needed replacement parts.
Additionally, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blew up shortly after leaving the ground in June this year. The Cygnus spacecraft has more than 7,000 pounds (3,200 kilograms) of crew supplies, other equipment and scientific experiments. While NASA’s worldwide partners have helped keep supplies flowing to astronauts aboard the station, this will be the first U.S.-based attempt since then.
Orbital, which already had planned to outfit Antares with new engines, grounded the rocket and quickly settled on a new supplier, Russia’s NPO Energomash, the same company that supplies the RD-180 engines that power ULA’s Atlas rocket. On Tuesday, NASA had a launch readiness review to determine the risks associated with the launch.
The improvements come after the October 2014 accident, when an Orbital ATK Antares rocker that was to deliver a Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS crashed six seconds after launch.
Saturday also is a possibility, but United Launch Alliance still does not have full clearance that the range – the area beneath the rocket’s early path – will be clear and available. The meeting included senior NASA, the U.S. Air Force, Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance managers.
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Eight months after Orbital’s explosion, SpaceX, the other company NASA relies on to ferry cargo to the station, also saw its rocket explode.
