Orbital ATK Postpones Cargo Launch Due to Bad Weather

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will launch the Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft on the initial leg of its cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The spaceship was scheduled to launch on Thursday, but now the next opportunity will be on Friday. The two HoloLens headsets were also in SpaceX’s cargo rocket, which had exploded a few minutes after its launch.

The United Launch Alliance will try again Friday evening to launch an Atlas V rocket after poor weather conditions scrubbed Thursday’s launch attempt.

Orbital later accelerated plans to outfit Antares with new engines and purchased two Atlas rocket rides to fly Cygnus capsules to the station in the meantime.

According to the latest weather forecast from the United States Air Force 45th Weather Squadron, there is a 30% percent chance overall of acceptable weather conditions for Saturday’s launch.

Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital had completed a test flight and two of its originally planned nine station cargo runs under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA, delivering about 8,400 pounds (3,800 kg) pounds of a promised 22 tons of supplies, when Antares faltered on October 28, 2014.

If no other supplies reach the station, the crew will hit reserve supplies of food in April 2016, NASA said.

The Atlas V rocket has proved consistently reliable since its maiden launch in 2002, suffering only one significant issue in 2007 when a valve leak in the upper stage caused it to shut down early.

Much-needed food is inside Orbital’s cargo carrier, named Cygnus after the swan constellation.

Russian Federation also lost a supply ship earlier this year.

The launch is going to be crucial for Cygnus as the spacecraft has not flown since a year ago. It was the company’s first failure since making the first commercial space station shipment in 2012. SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to restart station deliveries in January with its Falcon rockets.