And You: NASA’s Launching Supplies To The International Space Station Today

Saturday also is a possibility, but United Launch Alliance still does not have full clearance that the range – the area beneath the rocket’s early path – will be clear and available. NASA reset the launch time to 6:25 p.m. and scrubbed it just before 6:15 p.m.

Launch Notes: OA-4 will mark the 60th launch of the Atlas V and the 30th launch in the 401 configuration.

NASA says there is a 30 percent chance of favorable weather for Friday’s rescheduled launch.

That’s because in 2014, an Orbital mission to the space station failed spectacularly after the refurbished Russian engine in its Antares rocket exploded.

This is Orbital Sciences’ fifth launch to the ISS.

Universe Today reports that the mission will feature “the first ever Atlas V rocket, [which] will launch a commercial Cygnus cargo freighter” to the ISS, which orbits about 220 miles above Earth.

At the time, NASA said the cost of the launch was around $200 million. SpaceX plans to resume flights in January, the news service said. It had the last US resupply success, back in April.

In the meantime, Orbital purchased two Atlas 5s from ULA to to help make up for the Antares failure and fulfill the company’s $1.9 billion contract with NASA to deliver some 44,000 pounds of supplies and equipment through 2016.

The negative impact that microgravity has on astronauts’ bone marrow and blood cells, which are similar to those experienced by bedridden patients on Earth.

The ISS and her six person crew can not live and work on the station and fully utilize its research function without a steady stream of resupply missions.

But the success of this mission is far from certain if previous space launches by private companies are anything to go by. A short circuit knocked out one of eight power channels in mid-November. Science payloads will offer a new life science facility that will support studies on cell cultures, bacteria and other microorganisms; a microsatellite deployer and the first microsatellite that will be deployed from the space station; and experiments that will study the behavior of gases and liquids, clarify the thermo-physical properties of molten steel, and evaluate flame-resistant textiles. While Orbital has made successful runs to the station before, exploding on the pad even once is no way to keep the customer happy. “You’re always a little nervous, but highly confident”, Pinkston told the AP. It is expected to return to flight by next summer.

“Of course, there’s still technical issues because they’re recovering from an accident as well”, Shireman said. He called them “growing pains” in what still is a transition period.

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations.

Orbital, which is headquartered in Dulles, Va., has redesigned its capsule known as Cygnus so that it can carry more cargo. So was the one that was lost; this one is S.S. Deke Slayton II.