High winds threaten to ground launch of space station supplies for 3rd

The Atlas V will send Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft into orbit.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security and its headquarters are located in Centennial. Sunday’s weather is slightly better, but still only a 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions.

The mission also marks Orbital’s first launch from Florida, and the first cargo mission to the ISS from American soil since SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was lost in June.

An illustration of Orbital ATK’s enhanced Cygnus spacecraft on approach to the International Space Station. The company expects the new rocket to be ready for space flight by the middle of next year. Orbital ATK plans to return its Antares rockets to flight in 2016.

The ISS or the International Space Station, the farthest outpost of mankind is inhabited by six members. About one-third of those supplies are science experiments.

Among the contents are science equipment totaling 846 kg (1867 lbs.), crew supplies of 1181 kg (2607 lbs.), and spacewalk equipment of 227 kg (500 lbs.). That’s because of launch accidents by NASA’s two commercial suppliers.

Prior launch attempts on Thursday and Friday were also scrubbed.

The mission will be the first for the company since a sudden rocket failure in October 2014 destroyed Orbital’s Antares rocket and the thousands of pounds of cargo on board, just seconds after launching from Wallops Island, Virginia.