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. The mission is Orbital ATK’s fourth cargo delivery flight to the station through NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.
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The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the OA-4 mission was scrubbed today due to forecasted high winds.
If successfully launched, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s commercial cargo flights to the station will restart, ending its dependence on Russian and Japanese rockets.
An Orbital rocket exploded on a supply run in October 2014, while SpaceX suffered a launch failure in June.
NASA hired Orbital ATK and Elon Musk’s SpaceX as private space companies to provide resupply missions to the ISS.
Other payloads include a jetpack that astronauts can wear as a safety aid during spacewalks, an experiment that will test flame retardants and fire-resistant materials for use in space, a new life-science lab and more than a dozen CubeSats for deployment, plus air supply tanks, food and personal items for the crew. That rocket won’t be ready until next year, the company said, so it contracted with the United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to use its Atlas V for Sunday’s launch. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who commands the station and is in the midst of a one-year mission in space, is Lindgren’s backup.
Orbital bought another company’s rocket, the veteran Atlas 5, for this supply mission. It has launched essential supplies and NASA gear to the International Space Station. Its two suppliers have been grounded for months by launch accidents, and the station pantry needs restocking. Cygnus should reach the Space Station by Wednesday if all goes according to plan as it chases the orbiting laboratory for the next few days. Find us on Facebook too!
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. The station’s robotic arm will grapple the spacecraft and berth it to the Earth-facing port on the Node 1, or Unity, module, the first time that docking port has been used by a cargo spacecraft.
“Thank you all very much”, Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital’s Space Systems Group, told the team after Cygnus was safely deposited into orbit.
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While acknowledging 2015 has been a hard year because of the disrupted supply chain, Shireman said commercial space is inevitable and will drive down launch costs.
