Bad weather delays U.S. space station shipment, 1st in months

The final try was scheduled for 6:25 p.m. Launch teams held the clock at T-minus four minutes and transferred Cygnus to internal power just in case the weather improved. At the Space Launch Complex 41, the shuttle was scheduled to be launched today at 5:55 p.m. EST. The Antares explosion upon launch was likely caused by a problem with one of its first-stage AJ26 engines, and the new Antares will be updated to run with a Russian-made RD-180 engine (which is also used for the Atlas V’s first stage).

The Dragon’s next flight in June was doomed by a Falcon 9 rocket failure, leaving both of NASA’s commercial cargo providers temporarily grounded while they sorted out their respective accidents.

This time, the Cygnus spacecraft will deliver about 3,500 kilograms of cargo, including food and Christmas gifts to the space station. As per the contract the Orbital company is required to carry at least 44,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2016.

The original S.S. Deke Slayton was the cargo craft lost in last year’s explosion.

An uncrewed, privately-built, cargo-carrying spacecraft loaded down with thousands of pounds of supplies for NASA is expected to launch atop a commercial rocket to the International Space Station Friday, after bad weather delayed its first launch attempt Thursday.

Orbital’s newest Cygnus capsule — named after the swan constellation — holds food, clothes, Christmas presents, spacewalking gear, high-pressure nitrogen and oxygen tanks for the air supply, and science experiments.

More than a third of that capacity will be given over to science experiments, Culbertson said.

Orbital is competing against privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corp. for follow-on station cargo delivery contracts, now due to be awarded in January.

Launch Notes: OA-4 will mark the 60th launch of the Atlas V and the 30th launch in the 401 configuration. “They’ve been relatively successful to this point”, Marco Caceres, director of space studies with consulting firm Teal Group, said before the launch. Cygnus will be launched into a targeted orbit of 143 x 144 miles above the Earth, inclined at 51.64 degrees to the equator.

If the launch goes ahead as planned Thursday, the spacecraft will arrive at the space station on December 6.