{"id":11846,"date":"2021-02-20T23:52:19","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T15:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/antares-rocket-launches-heavy-cargo-load-to-international-space-station\/"},"modified":"2021-02-20T23:52:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T15:52:19","slug":"antares-rocket-launches-heavy-cargo-load-to-international-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/antares-rocket-launches-heavy-cargo-load-to-international-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Antares rocket launches heavy cargo load to International Space Station"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket lifts off Saturday from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Credit: NASA\/Patrick Black<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Antares launcher rocketed into orbit Saturday from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, deploying a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship carrying nearly 8,400 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, the the most massive collection of payloads ever flown to the research outpost on a U.S. commercial freighter.<\/p>\n

The Antares rocket lit its two Russian-made RD-181 engines and took off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, at 12:36:50 p.m. EST (1736:50 GMT) Saturday. The on-time launch was the 14th flight by an Antares rocket and the 16th mission by a Cygnus cargo ship, which Northrop Grumman named the S.S. Katherine Johnson after the trailblazing NASA mathematician portrayed in \u201cHidden Figures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burning a mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen, the RD-181 engines steered the 139-foot-tall (42.5-meter) Antares rocket over the Atlantic Ocean on a trajectory to line up with the orbit of the space station. Between three and four minutes after liftoff, the Antares shed its first stage and payload shroud, giving way to the rocket\u2019s solid-fueled Castor 30XL upper stage to complete a nearly three-minute burn to enter orbit.<\/p>\n

The 17,723-pound (8,039-kilogram) Cygnus cargo ship separated from the Antares rocket nearly nine minutes into the mission, ready for its nearly two-day pursuit of the space station.<\/p>\n

The Cygnus was scheduled to unfurl its two fan-shaped solar arrays to begin generating electricity a couple of hours after launch. A series of thruster firings will position the cargo freighter near the space station early Monday for a final approach, culminating in capture of the Cygnus with the space station\u2019s robotic arm around 4:40 a.m. EST (0940 GMT).<\/p>\n

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will operate the station\u2019s Canadian-built robotic arm to grapple the Cygnus cargo craft. The space station soared more than 250 miles, or 400 kilometers, over the Wallops launch base minutes before liftoff of the Antares rocket, and Noguchi tweeted a spectacular photo of Virginia\u2019s Eastern Shore, showing the region covered by scattered clouds, and a blanket of snow to the west.<\/p>\n