The Cygnus spacecraft will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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The next launch attempt is Saturday, although forecasters put the odds of acceptable conditions at a lowly 30 percent.
Viewing the Launch by Webcast: The live webcast will begin at 4:30 p.m. EST. Bad weather already has resulted in a pair of back-to-back launch delays. But gusty wind interfered; launch controllers waited almost a half-hour for the wind to ease, but it did not.
With six astronauts on board, the space station has dipped below NASA’s desired six-month food supply.
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.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus cargo spacecraft aboard, launches from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The cargo ship is loaded with 7,300 pounds (3,300 kilograms) of food, science experiments, and other supplies.
An illustration of Orbital ATK’s enhanced Cygnus spacecraft on approach to the International Space Station.
Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations.
Orbital ATK used another company’s rocket to make this shipment.
Today’s launch will mark Orbital ATK’s fourth cargo launch for NASA and the first Cygnus flight since October 2014, when one of the company’s Antares rockets that normally carries the vehicles exploded just after liftoff, destroying its Cygnus payload.
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CRS-4 counts as the first flight of Cygnus on an Atlas and the first launch to the ISS using an Atlas booster.
