Liftoff: 1st USA shipment in months flying to space station

The Cygnus spacecraft lifted off at 4:44 p.m. Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, laden with more than 7,000 pounds (3,200 kilograms) of scientific experiments, miniature satellites, air filters, jet packs and other goods.

The mission, flown for Orbital ATK under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract, marks the first time the Cygnus has flown on an Atlas V rocket.

An Orbital ATK Inc. capsule blasted into space, resuming U.S.-based cargo missions to the International Space Station after two recent failures.

[Satnews] The 45th Space Wing supported NASA’s successful launch of Orbital ATK CRS-4, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 41 on December 6, 2015, at 4:44 p.m. EST.

During that failed 2014 launch, the 14-story rocket faltered just after launch, then exploded, before falling back onto the launch pad with a second larger explosion.

The Falcon 9’s last flight in June ended in failure while carrying a Dragon capsule full of ISS supplies.

The station now only has four months’ food supply aboard.

To cope with that engine flaw, Orbital ATK had to retool its propulsion system for the Antares.

It will all burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere after the Cygnus is released from the station.

The enhanced Cygnus spacecraft that launched today incorporated numerous planned upgrades of the vehicle including an extended pressurized cargo module (PCM), which enables the spacecraft to carry over 50 percent more cargo than the previous version.

Among the record-setting 7,700 pounds’ worth of supplies, experiments and hardware on board are two of Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented-reality headsets. A Russian cargo spacecraft had also failed to launch in April 2015.

After its fourth attempt, the Cygnus is finally on its way to the International Space Station.

“We want to get going”, Frank DeMauro, a vice president with NASA’s contracted shipper, Orbital ATK, said shortly before liftoff.

The Atlas V will send Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft into orbit. “It was a type of countdowns that makes them look type of boring”, stated Vern Thorp, mission supervisor for United Launch Alliance.

“With the help of our friends at ULA, who stepped forward and offered us a ride, in a very short period of time we’ve reached this point and we’re very excited about it”, he said. Normally used for hefty satellite launches, it is the mighty successor to the Atlas used to put John Glenn into orbit in 1962.

The company is still redesigning the Antares rocket and it won’t be ready for months yet, so instead, Orbital Sciences will be using the tried-and-tested Atlas V delivery system instead, at no extra cost to NASA. NASA’s 30-year shuttle program proved expensive and complicated, and, on two flights, deadly.

Cygnus is named the “SS Deke Slayton II” in memory of Deke Slayton, one of the America’s original seven Mercury astronauts.