Orbital ATK resumes United States cargo missions to ISS

NASA’s commercial resupply program was re-launched Sunday as an Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a Cygnus spacecraft full of supplies for the International Space Station.

The United Launch Alliance will try again Saturday to launch an Atlas V rocket after poor weather conditions scrubbed Thursday’s and Friday’s launch attempts.

With a brilliant afternoon launch, the private spaceflight company Orbital ATK returned its Cygnus cargo ship to flight after a year on hiatus Sunday (Dec. 6), launching vital supplies and NASA gear to the International Space Station.

The launch of an Orbital ATK Inc. spacecraft laden with supplies for the International Space Station was scrapped for a third straight day due to strong winds.

The preliminary launch time is 4:44 p.m. EST at the opening of a 30-minute window.

However, launch managers said Sunday’s weather forecast provides only a 40 percent chance of meeting launch requirements.

Astronauts will use the Canadian-made robotic arm to grapple the spacecraft at round 6:10 am (1110 GMT), NASA stated. SpaceX, the other supplier, suffered a launch failure in June on its eighth trip.

High wind has forced another delay for the first USA shipment of space station supplies since spring.

Like Orbital ATK’s Antares, ULA’s Atlas makes use of Russian engines, but it’s proven to be a reliable rocket for a wide variety of missions – most recently to put an advanced Global Positioning System satellite into orbit for the U.S. Air Force.

Orbital ATK’s Cygnus craft is packed with more than 7,000 pounds of food, spare parts and science experiments for the ISS and its six-person crew. Both cargo lines had been shut down by failed rocket launches. Russia, which also lost a shipment earlier this year, has another supply run coming up in two weeks.

If the Cygnus were to again fail at reaching the outpost and if no other vehicles were able to be launched, then the station’s crew members would begin consuming their food reserves in February and would ultimately run out of meals on April 12.

“So we’re looking forward to having those supplies being replenished” by Orbital ATK’s latest cargo resupply mission, he said.

Orbital is one of two companies hired by NASA to fly cargo to the station after the space shuttles were retired in 2011.

Launch Notes: OA-4 will mark the 60th launch of the Atlas V and the 30th launch in the 401 configuration. At about 5:45 pm, the spacecraft deployed its solar panels as mission control carried out system checks.