Orbital ATK Restarts NASA Cargo Missions With Successful Cygnus Launch

“Santa is on his way!'” Tory Bruno, president of rocket maker United Launch Alliance, announced via Twitter.

Orbital ATK Cygnus CRS-4 spacecraft poised for blastoff to ISS on ULA Atlas V on December 3, 2015 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

It launched at 4:44:57 p.m. EST Sunday on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Cygnus will be grappled at approximately 6:10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 9, by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, using the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to take hold of the spacecraft.

Eight months after Orbital’s explosion, SpaceX, the other company NASA relies on to ferry cargo to the station, also saw its rocket explode. Another Cygnus mission on an Atlas V will be launched in March, after which Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket will launch at least two ISS resupply missions in the second and fourth quarters of 2016. “It’s important to have a regular cadence of resupply flights, and we are looking forward to regular resupply to use the station as intended”, said Kirk Shireman, NASA’s programme manager of the ISS.

The enhanced Cygnus spacecraft that launched today incorporated numerous planned upgrades of the vehicle including an extended pressurized cargo module (PCM), which enables the spacecraft to carry over 50 percent more cargo than the previous version.

Cygnus will be the first USA ship to reach the station since April, though Russian Federation and Japan also fly freighters.

Carrying 7,000 pounds of research materials that will directly support over dozens of key investigations on the orbiting laboratory, a cargo-laden Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft soared towards the ISS. Cygnus will deliver vital equipment, supplies and scientific experiments to the ISS as part of its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. Everything came together on the fourth launch attempt, allowing the unmanned Atlas to blast off in late afternoon with 7,400 pounds of space station cargo, not to mention some Christmas presents for the awaiting crew.

If all goes according to plan, in a few days, Commander Scott Kelly, who is now spending one year in space, can look forward to unloading more food supplies, clothes and plenty of science experiments – the results of which can help benefit future missions. Normally used for hefty satellite launches, it is the mighty successor to the Atlas used to put John Glenn into orbit in 1962. 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. It is expected to return to flight by next summer. NASA’s 30-year shuttle program proved expensive and complicated, and, on two flights, deadly.