High winds delay Orbital space launch

While redesigning the Antares with different engines, Orbital ATK purchased two Cygnus launches on the Atlas V flown from Cape Canaveral by ULA, a Boeing-Lockheed joint venture. Forecasters give 40 percent odds for the planned 4:44 p.m. liftoff.

After an eight-month hiatus, a US supply ship is en-route to the International Space Station following Sunday’s successful liftoff of an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship aboard a hired Atlas 5 rocket. “Caught something good on the horizon, ” Space Station Commander Scott Kelly reported via Twitter. #Cygnus at #sunset on its way to @space_station!

After a two day orbital chase the Cygnus spacecraft will be grappled with the Canadian robotic arm by the station crew at approximately 6:10 a.m. on Wednesday, December 9. “That’s quite an accomplishment for a commercial space industry in my opinion, and I think it says a lot about what we can do to support NASA and all of exploration”.

The Atlas lifted off for the 60th time since its debut in 2002, flying ULA’s 12th and final mission of 2015, all successes.

“The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research breakthroughs not possible on Earth”.

With six astronauts on board, the space station has dipped below NASA’s desired six-month food supply. That connection will be the first berthing to the port in many years, NASA officials said.

Orbital ATK and SpaceX – which has a contract value United States dollars 1.6 billion to ship meals and gear to the analysis lab over a collection of provide journeys – are the one two U.S. corporations that may ship spacecraft to the ISS. Cygnus will deliver vital equipment, supplies and scientific experiments to the ISS as part of its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. “With our enhanced Cygnus spacecraft and upgraded Antares rocket, we are prepared to continue delivering vital cargo to the ISS for the foreseeable future”. After about a month, the craft will return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

An Orbital rocket exploded on a supply run in October 2014, while SpaceX suffered a launch failure in June.

The Packed Bed Reactor Experiment studies the behavior of gases and liquids when they flow simultaneously through a column filled with fixed porous media, which is of interest in many chemical and biological processing systems, as well as numerous geophysical applications. That’s the reason for the rocket’s debut today as a launch vehicle for space station resupply.

This is the first time that the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V has served the space station.