This time, Orbital ATK is using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket for the launch, while it upgrades its Antares rocket, which failed due to a problem with its reconditioned Ukrainian engine.
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The new launch time is Saturday at 5.10 p.m. (local time). NASA Television coverage will begin at 4 p.m. Earlier this evening, the 30-minute launch window tomorrow had a 30 percent chance of acceptable conditions.
High wind is once again threatening to keep space station supplies stuck on Earth.
The ULA Atlas V rocket will liftoff on the CRS-4 resupply mission with the private Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft under a commercial resupply services (CRS) contract to NASA.
Mission Description:Cygnus is a low-risk design incorporating elements drawn from Orbital ATK and its partners’ existing, flight-proven spacecraft technologies.
NASA has also contracted with Orbital ATK to fly three additional missions through 2018.
Cygnus is named the “SS Deke Slayton II” in memory of Deke Slayton, one of the America’s original seven Mercury astronauts. The cargo craft has been packed with 7,000 pounds of NASA supplies, science equipment and research bound for the ISS.
The ISS or the International Space Station, the farthest outpost of mankind is inhabited by six members.
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This launch is also Orbital’s return-to-flight mission after a cargo ship was lost previous year, when the company’s Antares rocket exploded shortly after liftoff at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
