Orbital ATK also intends to launch its fifth resupply mission atop an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral. So far unsafe wind gusts have prevented the launch of Orbital ATK’s supply-carrying spacecraft, but the weather is bound to improve by the set launch time today.’It is Orbital ATK’s fourth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
Advertisement
According to NASA, the supplies on the Cygnus “will offer a new life science facility that will support studies on cell cultures, bacteria and other microorganisms”.
An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Sunday, sending a long-awaited Orbital ATK cargo ship on its way to the International Space Station for NASA.
This is the first mission for the Cygnus spacecraft since the previous one was destroyed in October 2014 by an Antares rocket explosion.
Aside from the necessary items like food and spare mechanical parts, astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Scott Kelly will have some fun cargo to unpack once Cygnus gets to the station.
Cygnus is a low-risk design incorporating elements drawn from Orbital ATK and its partners’ existing, flight-proven spacecraft technologies.
The six station astronauts – two of them deep into a one-year mission – have gone without American shipments since April.
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. On Friday and Saturday, the winds were too blustery. The original S.S. Deke Slayton was the cargo craft lost in last year’s explosion.
The Atlas soared through clouds and, 21 minutes later, ended up placing the Cygnus cargo carrier in the flawless orbit. In augmented-reality mode, wearers will be able to see computer-generated holographic images superimposed on their field of view as a training aid. NASA normally likes to have a six-month stash of food aboard the space station, but it’s down a couple months because of the three failed flights. Cygnus’ delivery will help – but it could take as long as a year to replenish the stockpile fully.
Cygnus’ launch is just the beginning of a busy few weeks at the space station: Three crew members are due to ride a Russian Soyuz space taxi back down to Earth on December 11, and three fresh spacefliers are scheduled for liftoff from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 15.
Advertisement
“We are pleased that the enhanced Cygnus that bears his name will be able to provide up to 53 percent more in cargo weight to the International Space Station than our previously flown standard version”, said Orbital in a statement. The other, SpaceX, like Orbital ATK, also had to shut down its services after its Falcon 9 rocket blew up over Port Canaveral, in June.
