NASA Rocket Launch Carrying Space Station Goods

“With no signs poor weather conditions would clear in time for a launch today, the launch managers scrubbed today’s try”.

Watch live, via the embedded feed above, starting at 4:30 p.m. EST today, Thursday, December 3, as NASA TV presents the next cargo launch to the ISS. The 30-minute launch window opens at 5:33 p.m. EST.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands ready for launch with cargo for delivery to the International Space Station on launch complex 41at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, in Cape Canaveral, F…

A second Cygnus launch using the Atlas V rocket will take place next spring from Florida, followed by the return of operations to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in mid-2016 where the company will continue CRS missions atop the upgraded Antares rocket. The fourth, however, the Deke Slayton I, which lifted off on October 29, 2014, was destroyed when the Antares rocket booster it was attached to exploded just moments after leaving the launch pad. (3,500 kilograms) of food, supplies and scientific gear, including a tiny cubesat built by middle-school students in Virginia (which itself is carrying a golden medallion that was blessed by the Pope).

Welcome message to the ISS from Orbital Sciences.

Orbital ATK now holds a contract with NASA to fly 62,000 lbs. of cargo to the station over the course of 10 mission through 2018.

No astronauts were aboard, which was a very good thing; but thousands of pounds of equipment and supplies, bound for the International Space Station were-which was a very bad thing. Cygnus will be attached to the space station for a month before it becomes a flaming trash receptacle.

Resupplying the station has been a challenge for NASA, following not only Orbital’s accident but also the loss of a Russian Progress ship in April and a SpaceX Dragon capsule in June.