First U.S. shipment in months flying to space station

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V (401 configuration) rocket carrying the OA-4 Cygnus cargo spacecraft with much needed supplies blasted off towards the International Space Station (ISS) on 6 December 2015.

Several teams of students ranging from elementary school age to university level also have a particular interest in this launch because their CubeSats are tucked inside a NanoRacks carrier for deployment from the station.

The company said after the accident that a control operator detected a suspected rocket engine failure, and the rocket was purposefully detonated to prevent damage to people in the area.

On Sunday, the 194-foot tall Atlas rocket, did just that, blazing through cloudy skies over its seaside Florida launch pad as it headed into space. EST following three days of delays due to rain and high winds.

“This launch marks the completion of the critical first step of our go-forward plan for the CRS-1 contract to meet our commitments to NASA”, said Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK’s Space System Group, in a statement.

New hardware that will support dozens of NASA investigations and other science experiments from around the world is among the more than 7,000 pounds of cargo on the way to the International Space Station aboard Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft. NASA aims to keep a six-month supply of food aboard and is now down to a four-month cushion.

Orbital ATK and SpaceX – which has a contract worth $1.6 billion to send food and equipment to the research lab over a series of supply trips – are the only two United States companies that can send spacecraft to the ISS. A Cygnus last reached the station in July 2014.

Orbital ATK’s upgraded Antares launch vehicle remains on schedule for a full-power hot-fire test in early 2016 and resumption of flight operations from the Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia in the second quarter of the year.

After this, supplies have been arriving at the space station safely although none of them were launched from American soil. The Cygnus is carrying more than 7,000 pounds of cargo. It’s also the first Cygnus mission using the Atlas V launch system. Normally used for hefty satellite launches, it is the mighty successor to the Atlas used to put John Glenn into orbit in 1962. Orbital ATK’s engineering team confirmed that reliable communications has been established and that the vehicle’s solar arrays are fully deployed, providing the necessary electrical power to operate the spacecraft. NASA’s 30-year shuttle program proved expensive and complicated, and, on two flights, deadly.

“It is our future”, Shireman stressed last week.

Cygnus is named the “SS Deke Slayton II” in memory of Deke Slayton, one of the America’s original seven Mercury astronauts.