USA space station delivery on tap after 8-month stoppage

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s Cygnus craft, should liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:33 p.m. ET Friday, zooming on its way to deliver more than 7,300 lbs. of much-needed experiments, food and other supplies to the astronauts aboard the Space Station.

Space technology company Orbital ATK is due to launch a Cyngus rocket packed with supplies from Cape Canaveral in Florida just after 5.30pm United Kingdom time. Friday is the next opportunity, but more bad weather is expected.

It’s another no-go for the first space station supply run in months from the U.S.

The United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V – a mighty successor of the rocket used to put John Glenn in orbit in 1962 – has never been used before on a space station mission.

The writing had been on the wall as soon as the weather briefing had been conducted however, with the weather officer stating that even the prediction of weather conditions providing only a 10 percent chance of favorable conditions for launch as being “optimistic”.

The spacecraft was named “S.S. Deke Slayton II” in honor of the Mercury astronaut (1924-1993) and founder of Space Services Inc., a rocket developer for smaller commercial payloads, according to his NASA bio.

Orbital, which already had planned to outfit Antares with new engines, grounded the rocket and quickly settled on a new supplier, Russia’s NPO Energomash, the same company that supplies the RD-180 engines that power ULA’s Atlas rocket.

The Cygnus spacecraft for the OA-4 mission is the first to employ the longer, “enhanced”, PCM which can carry a greater volume of cargo than the PCM flown on previous missions, and lightweight UltraFlex arrays developed and built by Orbital ATK’s Goleta, California, facility.

The company’s Antares rocket blew up in October 2014, a few minutes after liftoff.

More attention than usual is focused on the Orbital CRS-4 mission because of three recent failures involving resupply efforts. A Russian resupply mission, in fact, is scheduled just before Christmas.

Orbital ATK’s return to flight was delayed by a rainstorm Thursday.