Orbital ATK’s Cygnus Spacecraft Successfully Launched on Cargo Delivery

Today’s spectacular blastoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying an Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial resupply spacecraft ignited the restart of critically needed American cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) following a pair of launch failures over the past year.

A private US cargo spaceship was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday afternoon, months after two USA commercial shipments were destroyed in launch explosions.

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

Supplies at the station are running low due to several failed delivery runs and botched rocket launches.

The Atlas V rocket left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sunday.

That drought has strained supplies of food, toiletries and spare parts on the space station, adding to the importance of Sunday’s launch and others to follow.

It’s proving hard for the Cygnus spacecraft to get off the ground for its return-to-flight mission!

The launch of the Orbital ATK cargo vessel had originally been scheduled for Thursday evening but had to be scrubbed because of rainy weather and thick clouds.

Launch Updates: To keep up to speed with updates to the launch countdown, dial the ULA launch hotline at 1-877-852-4321 or join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch,twitter.com/ulalaunch and instagram.com/ulalaunch; hashtags #Cygnus, #OA4 and #AtlasV. Shortly after that failure, Orbital purchased an Atlas 5 launch from ULA to fulfill its contractual requirements to NASA to deliver cargo to the ISS.

The Cygnus spacecraft has successfully delivered cargo to the ISS on 3 previous missions, but could only carry a maximum cargo of 5,000 lbs each. “We’re real happy to be back in space”, said Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital’s space systems group. It has more than 3,500 kilos of food, clothing, computer gear, spacewalk equipment, science experiments and other supplies for the research laboratory circling 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth.

It’s also the United Launch Alliance’s first-ever resupply mission to the orbital outpost.

Science payloads will support science and research investigations that will occur during the space station’s Expeditions 45 and 46, including experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science – research that impacts life on Earth, the release said.

While redesigning the Antares with different engines, Orbital ATK purchased two Cygnus launches on the Atlas V flown from Cape Canaveral by ULA, a Boeing-Lockheed joint venture.

Orbital ATK has named the OA-4 Cygnus the “S.S. Deke Slayton II”, upholding the tradition of naming each Cygnus in honor of astronauts.

“I just can’t emphasize enough how it’s important to us, on board ISS, to have a regular cadence of resupply flights”, Kirk Shireman, the program manager for ISS, said during the briefing.