However, poor weather including rain and cloudy skies at the seaside Florida launch site forced ULA to postpone the launch.
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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will launch Orbital ATK’s Cygnus™ spacecraft on the initial leg of its cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The rocket is created to carry the Orbital ATK’s uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station. The spaceship was scheduled to launch on Thursday, but now the next opportunity will be on Friday.
NASA’s other space station supply launcher, SpaceX, has been grounded since its Falcon 9 rocket broke apart several minutes after a launch this summer.
The Orbital Sciences/ATK Cygnus CRS-3 mission was lost when its Antares launcher exploded on the pad on October 28, 2014 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
While the Antares rocket continues its recovery, the Cygnus cargo will be launched using a competitor’s rocket – United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, according to The New York Times.
While NASA’s global partners have helped keep supplies flowing to astronauts aboard the station, this will be the first U.S.-based attempt since then.
Space technology company Orbital ATK is due to launch a Cyngus rocket packed with supplies from Cape Canaveral in Florida just after 5.30pm United Kingdom time. Elon Musk’s aerospace company will launch about one dozen uncrewed missions to the ISS under a deal with the U.S. space agency.
Liftoff was rescheduled until 5:33 p.m. on Friday. Orbital ATK suspended deliveries to the ISS after the crash.
The company said after the accident that a control operator detected a suspected rocket engine failure, and the rocket was purposefully detonated to prevent damage to people in the area.
“So we’re looking forward to having those supplies being replenished” by Thursday’s cargo mission, he added.
Orbital’s latest cargo ship contains food, clothes, equipment, science experiments and even storybooks, part of an astronaut-reading project for children.
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The craft will be carrying more than 7,000 pounds of science and research, crew supplies, and vehicle hardware when it arrives at the ISS on Sunday.
