High winds push Orbital space launch bid to Sunday

Orbital ATK returned to flight Sunday afternoon, launching an unmanned cargo mission to the International Space Station more than a year after it suffered a catastrophic explosion that shook NASA and the commercial space industry it has come to rely on.

Besides food, Orbital’s Cygnus cargo carrier contains clothes and toiletries for the six space station residents, as well as spacewalking gear, air-supply tanks and science experiments.

When the rocket does blast off, it will mark the 60th launch of an Atlas V rocket and the 30th launch of the rocket’s 401 configuration, but it’s the first time this type of rocket will ever launch a cargo ship to the International Space Station. When the launch was moved to today, the weather forecast improved to a 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time.

Cygnus, like most Orbital ATK spacecraft, is compatible with multiple launch vehicles, enabling the use of ULA’s Atlas V launch vehicle on this mission. Orbital ATK’s Antares, with a new Russian engine, is expected to reprise its role as the company’s resupply workhorse after its next ISS mission.

The Cygnus spacecraft has successfully delivered cargo to the ISS on 3 previous missions, but could only carry a maximum cargo of 5,000 lbs each. Shipper Orbital ATK is using another company’s rocket because its own, the Antares, has been grounded since 2014. The other, SpaceX, like Orbital ATK, also had to shut down its services after its Falcon 9 rocket blew up over Port Canaveral, in June. Christmas presents also are on board.In orbit, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly had to endure some teasing from his identical twin back home about the repeated delays.

“This launch begins a high tempo of cargo resupply missions supporting the International Space Station”, said Culbertson.

Besides crew supplies and spare parts, the Cygnus is also carrying almost 850 kilograms of research payloads.

Cygnus would stay attached to the station for more than a month, when it will act as a giant space dumpster.

“With the help of our friends at ULA, who stepped forward and offered us a ride, in a very short period of time we’ve reached this point and we’re very excited about it”, he said.

SpaceX was involved in the last successful resupply mission of the United States in April. Meanwhile, Orbital purchased a pair of Atlas 5 rocket rides from United Launch Alliance to deliver its next two Cygnus capsules into orbit.