More lousy weather as NASA tries for space station delivery

But clouds and rain could push the launch into Friday, when the weather worsens.

Orbital ATK now holds a contract with NASA to fly 62,000 lbs. of cargo to the station over the course of 10 mission through 2018.

An unmanned Atlas rocket was poised to lift off at sunset with about 3,550 kilograms of supplies for the International Space Station.

Since the Antares rocket is still grounded until Orbital completes their testing and upgrades in 2016, the Deke Slayton II is launching to space today atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket.

“The team’s performance has been top notch – very professional, great discipline, good teamwork across the board”, Bill Cullen, ULA’s launch director, told his team after announcing the scrub at 6:11 p.m.

Bad weather forced the U.S. space agency NASA to delay the private Cygnus cargo spacecraft’s return-to-flight mission. Although the space station is limping along on smaller loads of supplies provided by Japanese and European craft, the Orbital mission is carrying some much-needed replacement parts.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft onboard seen shortly after arriving at Space Launch Complex 41 on December 2, 2015, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

You can watch coverage of the Cygnus launch starting at 4:30 p.m. ET directly through NASA TV or in the window embedded below. “The forecast tomorrow calls for a 30% chance of acceptable conditions at launch time”, NASA reported. It also marks ULA’s first mission supporting ISS cargo resupply. But it’s since picked up the slack, along with Japan.

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

Oribtal will be using a new Cygnus spacecraft capsule which can carry 25% more cargo than its predecessor and has been built specifically by Orbital to meet its commercial commitment to NASA.

While the astronauts are not in any danger due to low cargo, the Antares explosion, a Russian Progress vehicle accident and a SpaceX Falcon 9 failure cut off multiple ways to bring material to the Space Station.