Orbital cargo ship carrying supplies for astronauts in space blasts off

A USA shipment of much-needed groceries and other astronaut supplies is rocketing toward the International Space Station for the first time in months.

It was the fourth launch attempt for the unmanned Atlas rocket, loaded with food, experiments and Christmas presents for the astronauts at the International Space Station.

In the near future, Boeing and United Launch Alliance plan to use the Atlas V to launch astronauts to the station in the CST-100 Starliner for NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme.

The launch marks Orbital’s fourth scheduled mission to the orbiting outpost, as part of a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to deliver necessities to the astronauts living in space.

On Sunday, the 194-foot tall Atlas rocket, did just that, blazing through cloudy skies over its seaside Florida launch pad as it headed into space.

Also aboard the newest Cygnus capsule: clothes, toiletries, spacewalking gear, air-supply tanks and science experiments.

The Atlas V rocket left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sunday. “I congratulate the combined NASA, ULA and Orbital ATK team for its hard work to get us to this point, and I look forward to completing another safe and successful flight to the ISS in several days”.

The blast cost Orbital at least $200 million in lost equipment and supplies.

The spacecraft will spend more than a month attached to the space station before its destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, disposing of about 3,000 pounds of trash in January.

The “S.S. Deke Slayton II” Cygnus spacecraft was successfully deployed into its intended orbit approximately 144 miles above the Earth, inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator, according to Orbital ATK.

It is a very significant mission mainly because previous year, there were two other delivery failures.

Wind remained a concern Sunday for a space station delivery mission that’s already running late. It will be the first NanoRacks microsatellite deployed from the space station and the first propulsion-capable satellite deployed from the NanoRacks-MicroSat-Deployer known as Kaber. Orbital ATK also provides a critical service by providing large-volume pressurized disposal cargo, a unique capability among America’s commercial cargo providers.

For the past six months NASA has relied on Russian and Japanese rockets to bring supplies to and from the space station. It is expected to return to flight by next summer. NASA’s 30-year shuttle program proved expensive and complicated, and, on two flights, deadly.