Gusty wind prevented the unmanned rocket from lifting off at dusk with 7,400 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station.
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Orbital plans to launch another of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas rockets in March, then return its own Antares rocket to flight from Virginia in May.
Two satellites will also be on board Cygnus and will be deployed from ISS to demonstrate how swarms of spacecraft will be able to exchange information with each other as well as determine who should speak with ground control at a certain time during a mission, according to NASA.
Investigation into the explosions revealed that Antares’ engine, built by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, had a faulty turbo pump. Thursday’s launch attempt was rained out.
A 194-foot Atlas V rocket carrying an International Space Station cargo spacecraft rolled to its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pad Wednesday morning.
“With no signs poor weather conditions would clear in time for a launch today, the launch managers scrubbed today’s try”, NASA said in a launch blog. But if the spacecraft launches later in its 30-minute launch window, its rendezvous with the station will slip to Tuesday (Dec. 8), NASA officials explained in the update.
Assuming the weather cooperates and the launch goes off as planned, the cargo craft is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Sunday, December 6.
The Cygnus spacecraft set to launch is dubbed the S.S. Deke Slayton II, after the original Project Mercury astronaut and pioneer of the first privately funded rocket.
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.
Resupplying the station has been a challenge for NASA, following not only Orbital’s accident, but the loss of a Russian Progress ship in April and a SpaceX Dragon capsule in June.
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Friday is the next opportunity, but more bad weather is expected. SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to restart station deliveries in January with its Falcon rockets.
