Watch S.S. Piers Sellers Cygnus Capsule Launch to the Space Station – NASA Wallops Flight Facility,Virginia

NASA Wallops Flight Facility,Virginia - Antares Orbital ATK Cygnus CRS-9 OA-9 ISS Resupply Ship Launch

Orbital ATK Rocket Launch Rescheduled - new ISS crew to follow

Yesterday's planned launch of the Orbital ATK Antares rocket from the NASA Wallops Island Flight Facility,Virginia,was postponed about 24 hours because of a fault detected in a ground support equipment cable (GSE) during a pre-launch checkout,the company said.They have spares on hand and rework procedures are now in process.There are no technical issues with the rocket or Cygnus spacecraft.The launch has been rescheduled for tonight,17 October at 7:40 p.m. EDT.*
The Cygnus spacecraft is carrying cargo for the International Space Station.On Wednesday 19 October,a replacemet crew for the ISS is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,Kazakhstan.Expedition 49's Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko will be joined by NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough and launched in the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft at 4:05 p.m. EDT.They will take two days to test upgraded equipment on the Soyuz,docking at the ISS Poisk module at 5:59 a.m. EDT.The launch has been postponed since 23 September because of a technical issue with the Soyuz that Roscomos repaired.They will return in late February having carried out hundreds of experiments in biology;biotechnology;physial science and Earth science.*
Orbital ATK is an aerospace manufacturer and defence contractor formed from the merger in 2015 of Orbital Sciences Corp. and Alliant Techsystems.It is based in Dulles,Virginia.*
Orbital ATK Inc (OA)

Impressive Cygnus Launch Reassures Orbital ATK and NASA

More than a year since the failed launch attempt of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft,Orbital ATK and NASA could relax yesterday with the flawless ULA Atlas V launch of an enlarged version of Cygnus,which unfurled its new solar panels and was pointed in the right direction to reach the ISS 250 miles above Earth.On 28 October 2014,the Antares rocket had exploded in a spectacular fireball,incinerating the company's spacecraft and the NASA cargo it was to carry to the ISS.Since then,Orbital has ascertained that it was probably the Antares' AJ-26 refurbished Russian engine that was responsible for the explosion in the form of a faulty turbopump;it is working to select and test a replacement for the AJ-26,while at the same time moving to United Launch Alliance,a Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture,for the rockets it needs to meet its eight-mission NASA contract obligations.Yesterday's successful Atlas V launch of the Cygnus SS Deke Slayton II,named for the NASA Mercury program astronaut and director of flight operations who died in 1993,was its fourth ISS resupply mission,the midpoint of the contract.It also marked the return of ISS resupply launches to US soil and Orbital's first launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,Florida.Besides launching from Cape Canaveral,Orbital is now utilising Kennedy Space Center's spacecraft processing facilities and services for the ISS missions.
Cygnus,which contains the Thales Alenia Space Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM),is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Wednesday,when US astronauts Scott Kelly,currently on a one-year mission with Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko,and Kjell Lindgren grab the spacecraft with the Canadarm2 robotic arm and attach it to the earth-facing ISS Unity Module.It will be docked for two months while the astronauts unload the Cygnus of such cargo as the SAFER jetpack,which is a self-contained maneouvering unit mainly for emergency use during spacewalks,as well as such items as science experiments,gases for breathing and a microsatellite launcher with the first ever microsatellite.*
Orbital ATK is a leading aerospace and defence technologies company with over 12,000 employees in 20 US states and several international locations.Its products range from small caliber ammunition all the way up to commercial aerostructures,commercial and government satellites,rockets,missile propulsion systems and advanced space systems for human exploration.*
Orbital ATK Inc (OA),Lockheed Martin (LMT),Boeing (BA)