Tag: Orbital ATK
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International Space Station and crew awaiting Atlas 5 launch of Cygnus
Atlas 5 rocket file photo. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — Lending a helping hand to resume the stalled U.S. supply chain to the International Space Station, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will send a commercial Cygnus cargo craft in pursuit of the outpost Thursday. With Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket and the SpaceX Falcon…
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Photos: Assembling Atlas 5 for International Space Station launch
Relive the steps to stack the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility for the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo freighter flight to the International Space Station. The first stage was erected initially, followed by the combined interstage and Centaur upper stage, then the encapsulated payload.Launch is planned for Dec. 3…
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International Space Station cargo ship hoisted atop Atlas 5 rocket
File photo of payload hoisting. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — Loaded with over 7,300 pounds of goods for the International Space Station, a commercial Cygnus cargo vessel was mounted atop its Atlas 5 rocket booster today for launch Dec. 3. Just over a week after stacking of the two-stage launcher began at the Vertical Integration…
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Explained: Why Atlas 5 will have longer windows for station flights
Atlas 5 launch. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — Expanding a single instant in time to 30 minutes, the upcoming United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets with Cygnus cargo-delivery freighters bound for the International Space Station will have an unprecedented opportunity available to launch each day. The first of two such launches in a 100-day span…
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Station-bound cargo ship shown to press before launch
The Orbital ATK’s Cygnus commercial resupply spacecraft, named the SS Deke Slayton II, is packed up and poised for launch to the International Space Station. Engineers showed the vessel to local reporters and photographers at the Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Friday. It will be encapsulated in the Atlas 5 rocket’s 14-foot…
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Stacking starts for Atlas 5 cargo run to space station with Cygnus
The mission poster. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — United Launch Alliance today began stacking its first Atlas 5 rocket to fly in service to the International Space Station, a commercial mission to send supplies to the orbiting complex. This launch, planned for Dec. 3, and another targeted for March 10, are precursors to the much…
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Radio bug to keep new Iridium satellites grounded until April
Artist’s concept of an Iridium Next satellite. Credit: Thales Alenia Space The first launch for Iridium’s next-generation mobile communications fleet has been pushed back four months — from December until April — to resolve a technical problem inside the spacecraft’s Ka-band communications payload. The announcement Oct. 29 means Iridium will miss a long-targeted timetable to…
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NASA quietly posts images of explosive Antares failure
Less than a week after publishing the results of an independent investigation into last year’s Antares rocket failure, NASA has released dramatic new photos of the catastrophic crash just after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia. The space agency posted a handful of photos of the failure shortly after the ill-fated Oct. 28, 2014, Antares launch,…
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Two Antares failure probes produce different results
Orbital’s Antares rocket suffers a failure moments after liftoff Oct. 28, 2014, from Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky An Orbital ATK investigation into last year’s Antares rocket crash in Virginia identified a decades-old manufacturing defect inside an AJ26 engine turbopump as the most likely cause of the failure, but a team of NASA engineers…
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Bags are packed inside Cygnus commercial cargo freighter
Technicians load cargo inside the Cygnus spacecraft’s pressurized supply section in this photo taken Oct. 20. Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis The first installment of supplies and provisions tagged for launch on Orbital ATK’s next commercial supply run to the International Space Station, the company’s first since a catastrophic launch failure last year, has been loaded into…