The uncrewed Cygnus freighter, which is built by aerospace company Orbital ATK, was scheduled to launch toward the International Space Station Thursday evening (Dec. 3) at 5:55 p.m. EST (2255 GMT) from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but bad weather scuttled the liftoff attempt.
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An Orbital Cygnus spacecraft, perched atop an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), which is a joint venture between, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, had been due to take off at 5:55p.m. EST. This caused the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket with Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft to be scrubbed.
The Cygnus is packed with more than 7,000 pounds of food, spare parts and science experiments bound for the ISS and its six-person crew orbiting almost 260 miles overhead.
The first Cygnus spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.
Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket explodes 6 seconds after liftoff, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, in Virginia.
Meanwhile, work continues on the ground to get USA cargo launches back on track. “We’re confident it was a full effort, we just did it in a 12-month period”. Orbital ATK’s Antares, with a new Russian engine, is expected to reprise its role as the company’s resupply workhorse after its next ISS mission.
“This is step one in the return-to-flight plan”, said Mike Pinkston, Orbital’s Antares program manager.
“It’s probably as close to a drop-in replacement as you could find to the AJ-26”, he said.
Pics Strong winds over the launch site and thick cloud cover have led NASA to delay its planned resupply mission to the International Space Station.
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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. “So we’re looking forward to those supplies being replenished by the Cygnus”. “So there’s a chance that date won’t hold”.
