The ULA Atlas V rocket roared off the launch pad at 4:44 p.m. EST at the opening of a 30 minute launch window from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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Atlas V launches with Cygnus A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasts into space, carrying an ISS-bound Cygnus resupply spacecraft.
Eight months after Orbital’s explosion, SpaceX, the other company NASA relies on to ferry cargo to the station, also saw its rocket explode.
Centaur-Cygnus sunset The sun dips lower on the horizon as a United Launch Alliance Atlas V Centaur upper stage pushes an ISS-bound Cygnus supply spacecraft across the Atlantic Ocean.
Orbital ATK’s upgraded Antares launch vehicle remains on schedule for a full-power hot-fire test in early 2016 and resumption of flight operations from the Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia in the second quarter of the year. NASA normally likes to have a six-month stash of food aboard the space station, but its down a couple months because of the three failed flights. Orbital ATK bought another company’s rocket, the veteran Atlas V, for this supply mission. “So giving those guys food and T-shirts is near and dear to my heart”, said Dan Tani, Orbital ATK’s senior director for mission and cargo operations.
The CRS-4 mission marks the debut of an enhanced version of the Cygnus vessel, which can carry 53 percent more than its previous version. At the station, astronauts will unload 3,349.0 kilograms (7,383.3 pounds) of cargo before reloading the spacecraft with garbage for a destructive reentry in January.
In a string of failed resupply cargo ship launches, the space station has been struggling to rebound from this series of unfortunate events. Toilet supplies run out in February, said station program manager Kirk Shireman.
Top image: Atlas V rocket with Cygnus on board awaiting launch.
Like Orbital ATK’s Antares, ULA’s Atlas makes use of Russian engines, but it’s proven to be a reliable rocket for a wide variety of missions – most recently to put an advanced Global Positioning System satellite into orbit for the U.S. Air Force.
Orbital ATK and SpaceX – which has a contract value Dollars 1.6 billion to ship meals and gear to the analysis lab over a collection of provide journeys – are the one two United States corporations that may ship spacecraft to the ISS.
The spacecraft should arrive at the space station on Wednesday.
NASA is anxious to get its commercial supply chain moving again.
“I can’t think of a better way to end the year, really, than to support this critical mission”, said Kevin Leslie, ULA mission manager.
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The Cygnus launched Sunday is named after Mercury 7 astronaut Deke Slayton, a pioneer in commercial spaceflight before his death in 1993.
