Rocket launch reignites space station deliveries in Virginia

The capsule is filled with more than 5,000 pounds of food, supplies, and science experiments for the crew of the International Space Station.

A launch from the facility is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. tonight.

Last week the launch window had to be moved to Sunday because of Hurricane Nicole’s proximity to a ground tracking station in Bermuda and then to Monday due to a faulty ground support equipment cable.

Cygnus is carrying 5,100 lbs worth of equipment, supplies and experiments to astronauts aboard the space station under a contract with NASA.

Earlier Orbital had conducted a static 30 seconds test firing of the Antares at the Virginia launch pad on May 31 but had never flown a rocket featuring the new engines from Russian Federation.

The Antares rocket will start an unmanned Cygnus cargo ship on its trek to the International Space Station.

It was the first flight of Orbital ATK’s unmanned Antares rocket since the October 28, 2014, blast that wrecked the pad and destroyed everything on the space station supply run.

Skies were trending toward clear above the Lehigh Valley and to the south toward the launch site, said Sarah Johnson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Mount Holly, New Jersey. For the latest launch info, you can go to this NASA website.

Instead of the Antares rocket, the company used a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to propel the cargo to space from a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Monday’s mission is Orbital ATK’s sixth official cargo resupply mission for NASA, and the fourth using an Antares rocket. Cygnus will remain at ISS until November before its destructive re-entry into earth’s atmosphere, disposing of about 3,000 pounds of trash.

The mission seeks to put the state-owned launch pad back into business. S. space agency NASA announced.

The launch also signified the inaugural use of the refurbished Pad-0A, which had undergone $15 million in repairs and upgrades after the 2014 explosion.

The National Aeronautics & Space Administration created the program to resupply the orbiting lab and foster commercial space activity after the space shuttle was retired in 2011.