Orbital Science was set to launch its Cygnus cargo spacecraft on Thursday, but thick clouds and rain over its launch site in Florida forced Orbital ATK to postpone the launch until Friday, 4:33 p.m. EST.
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Orbital accelerated plans to outfit Antares with new engines and purchased two Atlas rocket rides to fly Cygnus capsules to the station.
You can watch coverage of the Cygnus launch starting at 4:30 p.m. ET directly through NASA TV or in the window embedded below.
A privately built Cygnus supply craft bound for the International Space Station will get a second chance to launch today (Dec. 4) after bad weather foiled an attempted liftoff yesterday.
It was not immediately announced when the next launch attempt would be if the weather does not cooperate again Friday evening. There’s a 60 percent chance that dismal weather may again delay the launch, according to a NASA update. 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.
Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft carries over 7,700 pounds of cargo with clothing, food, supplies, a prototype satellite, experiment equipment, and two Microsoft HoloLens headsets for the International Space Station (ISS).
It’s also the United Launch Alliance’s first-ever resupply mission to the orbital outpost. The last successful US supply run was in April. Orbital contracted with ULA to use the Atlas for two missions in order to resume flight operations as quickly as possible after the mishap.
Saturday also is a possibility, but United Launch Alliance still does not have full clearance that the range – the area beneath the rocket’s early path – will be clear and available.
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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.
