Atlas V launch Thursday marks a series of firsts

If the launch occurs on schedule, the spacecraft will reach the space station Sunday, Dec. 6, where NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren will take point on capturing it via the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm, assisted by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

The launch is now scheduled for 5:33 p.m. EST (2233 GMT) Friday. There will be a 30-minute launch window at that time.

At 5:55 PM EST, NASA TV will broadcast live coverage of its orbital resupply mission to the Space Station from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL.

The Atlas is a stand-in for Orbital’s Antares rocket, still grounded following a 2014 launch explosion.

NASA made a decision to hire two contractors to haul cargo with the goal of always having one ship available if one of the firm’s rockets failed.

According to NASA, the enhanced Cygnus will carry about 3,500 kilograms of cargo to the ISS, one third of which are crew supplies.

Atlas V and Cygnus on the pad at night An Atlas V rocket, carrying the ISS-bound Cygnus resupply spacecraft, sits on the pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

The stakes are high for NASA and the ISS partners following a string of three cargo mission mishaps over the past year resulting from a trio of launch failures by both USA and Russian rocket providers involving Orbital ATK, SpaceX and Roscosmos. The rocket and the company’s cargo ship were destroyed. 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.

On Friday’s flight, Orbital’s cargo capsule will fly on a rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

Culbertson noted it’s been a challenge to get to this point, “but return-to-flight became the company’s very, very sharp focus” following the launch accident. Because of that issue, Orbital said it will no longer use Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 engines for its Antares rockets anymore. Slayton was also a champion of America’s commercial space program.

For Thursday’s launch, Orbital ATK said it plans to use a different rocket – the workhorse Atlas V – which has been used to put many satellites into orbit but has never been used to send a cargo to the space station.