Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance will send a rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station on Thursday.
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According to Orbital Sciences, the launch was originally scheduled for 5:55 pm EST and no technical difficulties were reported. But clouds and rain could push the launch into Friday, when the weather worsens. Following in-orbit activation and testing after launch, the spacecraft will rendezvous and berth with the ISS Dec. 6 at approximately 5:30 a.m., EST.
It’s also the United Launch Alliance’s first-ever resupply mission to the orbital outpost.
This will be Orbital’s first space station resupply mission since a Cygnus spacecraft was destroyed October 28, 2014, when its Orbital-designed Antares booster suffered a catastrophic main engine failure 15 seconds after liftoff from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Island, Va., launch site.
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.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands ready shortly before a launch attempt was scrubbed due to poor weather conditions on launch complex 41at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Orbital ATK competed with SpaceX to transport astronauts to the ISS under its contract with NASA.
If successfully launched Thursday, the Cygnus spacecraft will reach the space station Sunday. Slayton is carrying over 3 tons of equipment and supplies for the astronauts on ISS. Orbital expects to start using its own Antares rocket again in May 2016.
“2015 has been a hard year for ISS”, said said NASA ISS program manager Kirk Shireman at a December 2 briefing here, referring to those two failures as well as the loss of a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft in April.
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Testifying from space before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Wednesday, Kelly said it has been helpful to be able to grow things in the station, where he is stationed for a full year.
