Orbital Sciences ISS Commercial Resupply Services Mission (Orb-2)

[IsItPluggedIn]

Launch Date: July 12, 2014

Launch Site: MARS Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA

Cygnus ISS Arrival: July 15, 2014

 

The launch of Antares for the Orb-2 Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for Saturday, July 12 at 1:14 p.m. EDT. Rollout of the Antares rocket to its launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport occurred early this morning. This afternoon, the team will erect the rocket on the pad and continue preparations for the launch. Following the launch, the Cygnus cargo resupply spacecraft is targeted to arrive at the ISS on July 15 with berthing scheduled at approximately 7:24 a.m. EDT.

 

Cygnus will be boosted into orbit by a two-stage Antares rocket from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The launch sequence will last about ten minutes from liftoff through the separation of Cygnus from the Antares vehicle.

Once in orbit, Cygnus will deploy its solar arrays and undergo initial check-out. The spacecraft will then conduct a series of thruster burns to raise its orbit to bring it within 4 km of the ISS prior to receiving authorization to autonomously rendezvous with the station. When the vehicle approaches to within 12 meters, the astronauts will use the station?s robotic arm to grapple Cygnus and berth it to the Harmony node of the station.

Cygnus is planned to remain berthed at the ISS for approximately 30 days during which time the station crew will unload cargo from Cygnus and subsequently load it with materials for disposal. At the end of the mission Cygnus will depart the station and reenter the Earth?s atmosphere

 

https://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Orb-2/default.aspx

 

 

[Beittil]

Man, for a second there I thought that rocket was gonna flip over just after clearing the pad... that launch tower pulled back and all of a sudden the entire rocket shifted a few feet sideways :S

[XerXis]

well, it docked without problems :)

[DocM]

That was an interesting excursion at liftoff. Probably a strong wind gust corrected for by the avionics.

What'll be interesting is how long it takes them to transition to "Antares II" - the non-Russian engined follow on. Almost a certainty with the Ukraine-Russia deal and the Orbital-ATK merger. It's likely to use a solid first stage based on ATK's Dark Knight SRB's.