The Orbital ATK built unmanned Cygnus cargo spacecraft will take off on Friday at 5:33 pm from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station of Florida, NASA officials announced.
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Today’s weather outlook does not appear to be much better, with only a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions at launch time.
The Cygnus, an upgraded cargo ship, is due to carry more than 7,700 pounds (3,500 kg) of food, clothing, supplies and science experiments to the space station, including a prototype satellite astronauts will put together like a Lego kit. The last successful US supply run was in April.
Orbital ATK is using another company’s rocket to launch this shipment, as it works to get its own rocket, the Antares, flying again.
Thursday’s launch attempt was rained out.
The launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida had originally been scheduled for 5:55 p.m ET but was scrubbed at 6:11 p.m as a result of thick clouds and “disturbed weather”, according to NASA.
Eight months after Orbital’s explosion, SpaceX, the other company NASA relies on to ferry cargo to the station, also saw its rocket explode. This will be the Virginia-based company’s fourth operational mission to the ISS for NASA under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract. Friday is the next opportunity, but more bad weather is expected.
Orbital, which already had planned to outfit Antares with new engines, grounded the rocket and quickly settled on a new supplier, Russia’s NPO Energomash, the same company that supplies the RD-180 engines that power ULA’s Atlas rocket. That work has required only minor modifications to the stage itself, said Mike Pinkston, vice president and general manager of the Antares program at Orbital ATK, in a December 3 interview.
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Additionally, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blew up shortly after leaving the ground in June this year.
