An Orbital Cygnus spacecraft, perched atop an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance – a Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co joint venture – had been slated for liftoff at 5:55 p.m. EST (2255 GMT).
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If there is a scrub today due to the weather, there is only a 30 per cent chance of clear launch conditions on Thursday.
Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations.
An unmanned Atlas V rocket sits on the launch pad, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
This time, Orbital ATK is using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket for the launch, while it upgrades its Antares rocket, which failed due to a problem with its reconditioned Ukrainian engine.
The Cygnus craft from Orbital ATK will be prepared for a Friday liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida en route to the International Space Station. Update 3: Flight controllers have set a new T-zero time for launch at 6:25 p.m. EST – the tail end of the launch window.
It will be interesting to see if the space spacecraft takes off on Friday as current weather forecasts have predicted only 30% chances of favorable weather conditions. It was the company’s first failure since making the first commercial space station shipment in 2012. Elon Musk’s aerospace company will launch about one dozen uncrewed missions to the ISS under a deal with the USA space agency. The company’s Falcon rocket ended up in the Atlantic at the end of June, along with a new docking port and everything else destined for the space station.
Orbital ATK’s Cygnus is hauling almost 4 tons of suppliesto the International Space Station as part of a $1.9 billion deal with NASA. The company’s own Antares rocket is still not done being reconfigured after a dramatic launch explosion past year.
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Vascular Echo: a University of Waterloo study which builds upon previous Canadian research that found some astronauts experience accelerated stiffening of their arteries while on board the ISS.
