Liftoff! 1st NASA shipment in months flying to space station

The United Launch Alliance booster rocket lifted off at 4:44:57 p.m. EST (2144:57 GMT) from Cape Canaveral on a trek to place the Orbital ATK-owned resupply ship into its preliminary 143-statute-mile orbit.

Everything came together on the fourth launch attempt, allowing the unmanned Atlas to blast off with 7,400 pounds of space station cargo, not to mention some Christmas presents for the awaiting crew. NASA’s other commercial supplier, SpaceX, is also stuck on Earth. The liftoff marks the first resupply mission for NASA by Orbital ATK since the loss of its last Cygnus vehicle and Antares rocket in October 2014.

NASA is hoping the weather finally cooperates for a space station delivery already running late. It will arrive in three days. “Cygnus will spend more than a month attached to the space station, before its destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, disposing of about 3,000 pounds of trash”.

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. After that, however, the company hopes to return to putting the Cygnus atop Antares rockets and launching it from the Orbital ATK launch site at Wallops Island, Va.

Astronauts on the space station were able to watch the launch from their vantage point in orbit, capturing a stunning view of the liftoff.

After waiting out Florida’s weather for three days, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket lofted supplies to the International Space Station today for the first time ever. “#YearInSpace”, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who commands the station’s six-man crew and is flying a one-year mission to the outpost, wrote on Twitter after launch. “So giving those guys food and T-shirts is near and dear to my heart”, said Dan Tani, Orbital ATK’s senior director for mission and cargo operations. NASA aims to keep the supply cushion at six months. This will be Orbitak ATK’s fourth successful mission out of 10, where the private space company is under a more than USA $2 billion NASA contract. All cargo was lost, leaving the station to manage with smaller loads of supplies brought by other craft. Normally used for hefty satellite launches, it is the mighty successor to the Atlas used to put John Glenn into orbit in 1962. A Russian Progress vehicle also failed earlier this year, but those launches have again resumed to the Space Station.

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.

Orbital ATK’s OA-4 Cygnus mission patch. That connection will be the first berthing to the port in many years, NASA officials said. NASAs 30-year shuttle program proved expensive and complicated, and, on two flights, deadly.

“It is our future”, Shireman stressed at a news conference last week.