The launch team reset the liftoff for December 5 at 5:10 p.m. ET.
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Launch of the Atlas V is scheduled for Thursday evening.
For the second day in a row, poor weather stalled a critical space station delivery for NASA on Friday.
Orbital ATK bought another company’s rocket, the Atlas, for this supply mission. The rain was gone and the clouds thinner Friday, but wind gusts close to 30 knots twice exceeded the safety limit just minutes before liftoff, ultimately pushing the spacecraft past its 30-minute launch window. It also marks ULA’s first mission supporting ISS cargo resupply.
The first Cygnus spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.
Orbital ATK has three CRS missions scheduled in 2016 to support the International Space Station. Even with the resumption of American shipments, it will take a year for the 250-mile-high pantry to be as full as it was before the string of accidents, he told reporters.
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.
Times may change if the launch is delayed.
A successful launch would restart the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s effort to commercialize resupply missions to the ISS. HoloLens augmented-reality goggles to assist astronauts aboard the space station, according to Bloomberg.
Although, this time the company orbital will be using rocket from another company United Launch Alliance to meet its contractual requirements with NASA. A second Atlas will make a supply run for Orbital in March, before the Antares is back in business. The SM is assembled and tested at Orbital ATK’s Dulles, Virginia, satellite manufacturing facility and incorporates systems from Orbital ATK’s flight-proven LEOStar™ and GEOStar™ satellite product lines. SpaceX stumbled on its eighth trip.
The Cygnus OA-4 payload will carry food, water and clothing for the astronauts along with science experiments and equipment, and some student projects.
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The 4-inch cube houses a camera for Earth picture-taking, as well as a crucifix and religious medal blessed by Pope Francis.
