Orbital Sciences Launch Postponed Due To Bad Weather

The Cygnus craft from Orbital ATK will be prepared for a Friday liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida en route to the International Space Station. Another launch attempt is set for Friday.

It’s another no-go for the first space station supply run in months from the U.S.

The United Launch Alliance rocket was targeting a 5:55 p.m. Thursday launch, at Launch Complex 41 but it was scrubbed and rescheduled for 5:33 p.m. Friday due to poor weather conditions.

The next launch opportunity is Friday, but the forecast isn’t much better.

The next launch attempt is Saturday, although forecasters put the odds of acceptable conditions at a lowly 30 percent.

This is an important launch for Orbital after its failed launch in October of previous year, when its Antares rocket exploded 15 seconds from launch, turning the cargo into a fireball and damaging Wallops Island’s launchpad.

The mission also marks Orbital’s first launch from Florida, and the first cargo mission to the ISS from American soil since SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was lost in June.

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Then the USA cargo mission would have to work around a busy period of traffic by Russian crew and cargo vehicles flying to and from the outpost over the next several weeks.

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

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands ready for launch with cargo for delivery to the International Space Station on launch complex 41at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, in Cape Canaveral, F…

Orbital’s newest Cygnus capsule – named after the swan constellation – holds food, clothes, Christmas presents, spacewalking gear, high-pressure nitrogen and oxygen tanks for the air supply, and science experiments. The SM is assembled and tested at Orbital ATK’s Dulles, Virginia, satellite manufacturing facility and incorporates systems from Orbital ATK’s flight-proven LEOStar™ and GEOStar™ satellite product lines.

The Cygnus spacecraft that was scheduled to liftoff Thursday has about 7,700 lbs cargo.