A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from launch complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Dec. 6, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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Strong winds also delayed Friday’s attempt, and rainy weather postponed the initial launch bid on Thursday.
The capsule – Cygnus – carries more than 3500kg of food, clothing, computer gear, spacewalk equipment, science experiments and other supplies.
The company is still redesigning the Antares rocket and it won’t be ready for months yet, so instead, Orbital Sciences will be using the tried-and-tested Atlas V delivery system instead, at no extra cost to NASA.
The liftoff Sunday atop the Atlas V rocket went smoothly, with no flaws or problems after a launch delay of several days due to bad weather.
The vehicle pair of new UltraFlex solar arrays were fully deployed as planned and providing the requisite power to the vehicle and orbital communications was established.
“Everything looks great in this early stage of the mission”.
“We want to get going”, Frank DeMauro, a vice president with NASA’s contracted shipper, Orbital ATK, said shortly before liftoff.
The capsule it is carrying, which is expected to arrive on Wednesday, will be the first United States shipment to the station since April. Cygnus will remain attached to the station for approximately 50 days before departing with roughly 5,050 pounds (2,300 kilograms) of disposable cargo for a safe, destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean.
Cygnus is named the “SS Deke Slayton II” in memory of Deke Slayton, one of the America’s original seven Mercury astronauts.
The launch marks Orbital’s fourth scheduled mission to the orbiting outpost, as part of a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to deliver necessities to the astronauts living in space. Atlas is adjacent to new commercial crew access tower. Orbital ATK bought another company’s rocket, the veteran Atlas V, for this supply mission.
First enhanced Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo ship is fully assembled and being processed for blastoff to the ISS on December 3, 2015 on an ULA Atlas V rocket. Amateur Astronomers Assoc of Princeton, AAAP, Princeton University, Ivy Lane, Astrophysics Dept, Princeton, NJ; 7:30 PM. Its next cargo ship, launched two months later, ended up in the Atlantic following a failure of its Falcon rocket.
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Much of the scientific cargo will be used in research by the station astronauts.
