Right now, take off is scheduled for 5:55PM ET, which marks the beginning of a 30-minute launch window.
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“The forecast tomorrow calls for a 30 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time”, NASA said on Thursday, informing of the rescheduling.
Close-up view of the approach to the International Space Station of the first Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft built by Orbital ATK with the Earth in the background. (Cygus will fly atop an Atlas V until a revamped version of Antares is ready to go.) The launch will initiate the fourth of eight resupply missions Orbital ATK is flying under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA.
An uncrewed, privately-built, cargo-carrying spacecraft loaded down with thousands of pounds of supplies for NASA is expected to launch atop a commercial rocket to the International Space Station Friday, after bad weather delayed its first launch attempt Thursday.
The ISS and her six person crew can not live and work on the station and fully utilize its research function without a steady stream of resupply missions.
Of particular concern, said NASA ISS program manager Kirk Shireman, were levels of supplies for the station’s toilet that would run out in February without resupply.
Once close enough to the ISS, crewmembers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren will use the station’s robotic arm to catch the spacecraft. “So we’re looking forward to those supplies being replenished by the Cygnus”.
The International Space Station residents are gearing up to host the Orbital ATK Cygnus space freighter when it arrives December 6. Because of that issue, Orbital said it will no longer use Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 engines for its Antares rockets anymore.
Orbital executives denied any jitters on the eve of the launch, more than a year after the blastoff at Wallops Island, Virginia.
Orbital is launching the Cygnus from Cape Canaveral this time.
Additionally, the launch cargo will include two satellites that will be deployed from the space station to demonstrate new network capabilities critical to the operation of swarms of spacecraft. The craft is carrying experiments and more supplies, like food, for the crew on board, according to NASA.
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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.
