The spaceship was scheduled to launch on Thursday, but now the next opportunity will be on Friday.
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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).
“Atlas V has put satellites in orbit reliably and we are thrilled to be partners both with ULA on the Atlas and with NASA for to fly Cygnus to deliver this important cargo to the space station”, said Dan Tani, a former astronaut who is now Orbital ATK’s senior director of Mission and Cargo Operations.
Cygnus, carrying more than 3,500 kilograms of supplies, equipment and experiments for the ISS, will arrive at the station early December 7 if it launches December 4. 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.
Conditions tomorrow are only predicted to be slightly better than they were this evening – with just a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions to support launch.
Liftoff was rescheduled until 5:33 p.m. on Friday. 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. Previously, Orbital ATK successfully conducted two launch missions, carrying a total of 8,400 pounds of the promised 22 tons of cargo under the contract. The last time Orbital launched, its rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying the Cygnus cargo carrier and damaging the pad. The California company expects to resume deliveries in January.
According to Orbital Sciences, the launch was originally scheduled for 5:55 pm EST and no technical difficulties were reported.
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Also aboard are two Microsoft HoloLens headsets, which will provide station crew – and onlookers in ground control centers – with digitally enhanced images of whatever the astronauts are looking at.
