NASA counting on 1st US space station shipment in months

This first Cygnus mission using the Atlas V launch system provides increased performance and flexibility to the Orbital ATK cargo delivery service.

In the meantime, Orbital has a contractual obligation to NASA to supply ISS, so this mission is going up on the United Launch Alliance’s extremely dependable Atlas V. The Cygnus has been upgraded as well, with more capacity, new solar panels, and new fuel tanks. And further to this, by 1 pm of that same day, space researchers and scientists will talk about the supplies and experiments and equipment that the space craft will be delivering to the ISS.

Liftoff will occur from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The Cygnus rocket was ready to go with a load of 7,300 pounds (3,300 kilograms) of provisions – the heaviest load it would ever have carried – when the countdown was halted 14 minutes before the intended launch.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will launch the Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft on the initial leg of its cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Shireman said he hopes to gradually restore those levels over the next year as both Cygnus and Dragon resume cargo missions to the station.

Vern Thorp, program manager for NASA missions at ULA, said the experience levels of Orbital and NASA helped the launch processing work despite this being the first time this spacecraft has flown on an Atlas.

Orbital, which already had planned to outfit Antares with new engines, grounded the rocket and quickly settled on a new supplier, Russia’s NPO Energomash, the same company that supplies the RD-180 engines that power ULA’s Atlas rocket. As it now stands, the station has enough food on board to last until April if no more cargo ships show up, he said. Orbital expects to start using its own Antares rocket again in May 2016.

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. Some of the experiments represent redo’s by schoolchildren who lost their original tests on the failed launches.

It was too late to squeeze in a spare part to restore the space station to full power. A short circuit knocked out one of eight power channels in mid-November.

It was followed 8 months later by a SpaceX rocket explosion, and the consecutive accidents effectively shut off the flow of USA supplies to astronauts in orbit. It typically hoists satellites for the Air Force and other customers; this will be its first crack at a space station run.