The International Space Station is about to get its first delivery from Virginia in two years - and it gave the East Coast a show in the process.
Orbital ATK, one of NASA's shippers, launched its own cargo ship for the first time in two years from Wallops Island, after its launch exploded on the pad on Oct. 28, 2014.
Liftoff occurred at 7:45 p.m, and was visible along much of the East Coast, including Washington, New York and Boston.
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Liftoff occured at 7:45 p.m, and weather permitting, was visible along much of the East Coast, including Washington, New York and Boston as a 'fireball' in the sky.
'Liftoff of Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft occurred at 7:45 p.m. EDT liftoff this evening, Oct. 17, 2016, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore,' Nasa confirmed.
The Cygnus spacecraft separated from the Antares rocket second stage at 7:55 p.m. EDT, leaving Cygnus is safely in space.
'Welcome back to Wallops,' beamed Frank Culbertson, Orbital ATK's space systems president.
An Antares promptly exploded the last time one took off, on a space station supply run for NASA on Oct. 28, 2014.
Orbital ATK spent the past two years redesigning the unmanned rocket — replacing the old-time Russian engines with newer ones, among other things — and rebuilding the launch pad.
It also made good on two station deliveries using another company's rockets in Florida.
'This is a very exciting time for us at Orbital ATK,' Culbertson said. 'A lot of hard work has gone into this.'
The deputy manager of NASA's space station program, Joel Montalbano, couldn't help but get personal.
Orbital ATK, one of NASA's shippers, launched its own cargo ship for the first time in two years from Wallops Island, after its launch exploded on the pad on Oct. 28, 2014.
Altogether, five Cygnus ships have delivered food, clothes, equipment and science experiments to the space station since 2013.
'We've missed these guys and we've missed seeing launches from here,' he told reporters.
More than 130 VIPs were expected from Capitol Hill for the launch at 8:03 p.m. on Sunday.
In fact, sky gazers along much of the East Coast — Washington and New York included — were in for a treat.
Weather permitting, the launch should be visible as far south as Charleston, South Carolina; as far north as Boston; and as far west as Pittsburgh.
The latest Cygnus is packed with more than 5,000 pounds of goods, including presents for the space station astronauts.
Liftoff is set for 7:40 p.m, and weather permitting, the launch should be visible along much of the East Coast, including Washington, New York and Boston.
'We're very excited ... to have the biggest show back in town,' said Sarah Daugherty, test director at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
The Antares will carry up a Cygnus cargo carrier, named after the swan constellation.
Altogether, five Cygnus ships have delivered food, clothes, equipment and science experiments to the space station since 2013.
'Every cargo mission is like Christmas, right, and they never know what they're going to find when they open the hatch,' said Culbertson, a former astronaut who lived on the space station more than a decade ago.
The latest Cygnus is packed with more than 5,000 pounds of goods, including presents for the space station astronauts.
The current crew of three will double in size with the launch of three more astronauts from Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
In this Friday, Oct. 14, 2016 photo, an Orbital ATK Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus spacecraft is raised into the vertical position on launch Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016 scheduled cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station would be the company¿s first Antares launch since an explosion seconds after liftoff in 2014, which destroyed the rocket and space station supply ship, and damaged the launch complex.
Culbertson and others acknowledged they were nervous going into Sunday's launch, but stressed their confidence in the changes to the Antares. Everything seemed to be going well at the pad over the weekend, following a succession of rocket tests in recent weeks and months.
Even better, forecasters were calling for a 95 percent chance of good flying weather — this after Hurricanes Matthew and Nicole caused a slight flight delay.
Matthew held up work at the Virginia pad a week ago, while this week Nicole threatened a tracking station in Bermuda that's necessary for the launch. Fortunately, the station was not damaged.
Matthew held up work at the Virginia pad a week ago, while this week Nicole threatened a tracking station in Bermuda that's necessary for the launch. Fortunately, the station was not damaged.
As it turns out, now NASA's other supplier, SpaceX, is grounded. During a test last month at Cape Canaveral, a SpaceX rocket exploded on the pad; the company is still trying to figure out exactly what happened.
NASA hired the private companies to keep the space station stocked following the shuttles' retirement in 2011.
The space agency instead is focusing on getting astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit. Mars is the prime target.
THE CYGNUS MISSION: WHAT IT WILL DO
Cygnus is loaded with about 5,100 pounds of science investigations, food, supplies and hardware for the space station and its crew.
When Cygnus arrives to the space station, on Sunday, Oct. 23, Expedition 49 Flight Engineers Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Kate Rubins of NASA will grapple the spacecraft.
They will use the space station’s robotic arm to take hold of the Cygnus, dubbed the S.S. Alan Poindexter.
More than 130 VIPs were expected from Capitol Hill for the launch at 8:03 p.m. on Sunday.
After Cygnus’ capture, ground controllers will command the station’s arm to rotate and install it on the bottom of the station’s Unity module.
The Cygnus spacecraft will spend about five weeks attached to the space station. Cygnus will remain at the space station until November, when the spacecraft will depart the station and initiate the second spacecraft fire safety investigation, Saffire-II, and then dispose of approximately several tons of trash during its fiery reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.
