Cygnus spacecraft successfully launches to resupply International Space Station

Orbital ATK will try today to launch the mission at 4:44 p.m. EST (2144 GMT) with a 30-minute launch window as NASA hopes the weather forecast would be better for acceptable conditions for launch.

The rocket holds 7,400 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station.

Cygnus will be the first USA ship to reach the station since April, though Russian Federation and Japan also fly freighters. The other company, SpaceX, was recovering from a similar launch explosion in June this year as well.

The mission is Orbital ATK’s fourth of 10 under a NASA Commercial Resupply Services contract worth more than $2 billion. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who commands the station and is in the midst of a one-year mission in space, is Lindgren’s backup.

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.

The delayed launch of the Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS), that was delayed three times this week owing to bad weather, will be lifted off today, Sunday, December 6, 2015, said U.S. space agency NASA.

“NASA is delighted at the continued progress made possible by our investment in commercial space”, said NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman in a statement.

This is the first mission for the Cygnus spacecraft since by an Antares rocket explosion.

In October 2014, an Orbital Antares rocket full of hundreds of kilos of provides exploded seconds after takeoff, marking the primary catastrophic failure since personal corporations started resupplying the orbiting outpost in 2010.

The Atlas V rocket has proved consistently reliable since its maiden launch in 2002, suffering only one significant issue in 2007 when a valve leak in the upper stage caused it to shut down early. After the loss of the Orb-3 Deke Slayton in 2014, the space station program suffered two more supply craft losses, leaving the orbiting laboratory running low on basic needs. At the station, astronauts will unload 3,349.0 kilograms (7,383.3 pounds) of cargo before reloading the spacecraft with garbage for in January.

While acknowledging 2015 has been a hard year because of the disrupted supply chain, Shireman said commercial space is inevitable and will drive down launch costs.

Atlas rockets are slated to send Boeing’s CRS-100 Starliner space taxi to the space station with astronauts aboard, starting as early as 2017.

Other payloads include a jetpack that astronauts can wear as a safety aid during spacewalks, an experiment that will test flame retardants and fire-resistant materials for use in space, a new life-science lab and more than a dozen CubeSats for deployment, plus air supply tanks, food and personal items for the crew.