The launch window has a duration of 30 minutes in case weather or technical factors cause a brief delay from the opening of the window at 5:55 p.m.
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NASA issued a new launch time for 4:33 p.m. CST on Friday.
Orbital ATK isn’t the only company with a NASA cargo contract.
The United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V a mighty successor of the rocket used to put John Glenn in orbit in 1962 has never been used before on a space station mission.
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. That load is just shy of the combined weight of all the cargo the company’s rockets have carried to the space station so far in two previous successful missions as well as a third demonstration flight. That work has required only minor modifications to the stage itself, said Mike Pinkston, vice president and general manager of the Antares program at Orbital ATK, in a December 3 interview.
It’s heading for the International Space Station (ISS), where it will deliver 3.5kg of food, clothes, supplies and technology for science experiments. Ken has reported first hand from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, NASA Wallops, NASA Michoud/Stennis/Langley and on over 40 launches including 8 shuttle launches.
A Dec. 3 launch will result in the Cygnus spacecraft arriving at the space station on Sunday, Dec. 6. 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. It’s the first launch for Orbital since the company’s Antares rocket exploded on the launchpad last October, so the pressure to succeed is particularly high. It is expected to return to flight by next summer. The partnership is changing the way NASA does business, helping build a strong American commercial space industry and freeing the agency to focus on developing the next-generation rocket and spacecraft that will enable humans to travel farther in space than ever before.
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Named “S.S. Deke Slayton II” after the Mercury 7 astronaut and commander of the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, today’s launch would have been the first for the enhanced Cygnus, which carries 53 percent more cargo weight.
