Tags: NASA, Orbital Sciences, SpaceX, Antares, Launch Vehicle
Publication: LATimes.com
Publication Date: 04/16/2013

The Antares rocket at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Orbital Sciences is preparing for the first-ever launch of its 135-foot-tall Antares rocket. The Antares is scheduled for liftoff at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 17, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The test flight (A-ONE mission) is the first of two Orbital is scheduled to conduct this year under its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Space Act Agreement with NASA. If A-ONE is successful, the company will carry out a full flight demonstration of its new Antares/Cygnus cargo delivery system to the International Space Station (ISS) around mid-year. NASA has invested approximately $288 million in the Antares technology.

The two-stage rocket is powered by engines from Aerojet-General and will take an 8,300-pound mock cargo capsule 160 miles above Earth. The capsule will carry instruments to collect data and will remain in orbit for a few months until natural gravitation pulls it toward the Earth and causes it to burn up in the atmosphere.

This year Orbital will also perform its first of eight scheduled operational cargo resupply missions to the ISS under a $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. After the agency’s space shuttled retired, it opened up the doors for commercial companies to preform these flights. So far, SpaceX has conducted two successful resupply missions and now Orbital joins the competition.

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