With 14 minutes left, and no better weather in sight, launch director Bill Cullen halted the countdown, praising his team for “great discipline”.
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In this photo provided by the United Launch Alliance, an Atlas V rocket carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft, is rolled from the Vertical Integration Facility to a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.
This launch includes another first- the Atlas V rocket will be lifting the Cygnus into orbit.
An enhanced version of Orbital’s Cygnus cargo vessel, which can carry 53 percent more than its previous version, is loaded with 7,700 pounds of crew supplies, station hardware, and science experiments.
The two companies have split a $3.6 billion NASA flight contract and are competing with Sierra Nevada Corp. for a new, $3.5 billion deal that is expected to be awarded in January. Although, this time the company orbital will be using rocket from another company United Launch Alliance to meet its contractual requirements with NASA. A Russian supply run planned for later this month, if successful, would buy more time. “Because of the political situation, NASA feels more comfortable, I think, having two American companies backing each other up”.
While the astronauts are not in any danger due to low cargo, the Antares explosion, a Russian Progress vehicle accident and a SpaceX Falcon 9 failure cut off multiple ways to bring material to the Space Station.
But NASA has said it is confident in the two companies and is eager to resume flying cargo missions to the space station, which has been resupplied by other countries.
An unmanned Atlas rocket was poised to lift off at sunset with about 3,550 kilograms of supplies for the International Space Station.
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Also on its way up is the Burning and Suppression of Solids – Milliken (BASS-M) investigation, which could help keep astronauts alive in the future if something goes seriously wrong and fire breaks out aboard the ISS or future spacecraft.
