A US shipment of much-needed groceries and other astronaut supplies on Sunday rocketed toward the International Space Station for the first time in months, reigniting NASA’s commercial delivery service.
If the Orbital ATK capsule arrives at the space station tomorrow as planned, it will represent the first US delivery since spring.
“Santa is on his way,” rocket maker United Launch Alliance president Tory Bruno said via Twitter. More than anyone, perhaps, the six space station astronauts were thrilled following all the weather-related delays. They managed to photograph the rising rocket from their windows as both craft sailed over the Atlantic.
Photo: AP
“Caught something good on the horizon,” commander Scott Kelly said in a tweet.
To NASA’s relief, the weather cooperated after three days of high wind and cloudy skies that kept the Atlas V rocket firmly on the ground. Everything came together on the fourth launch attempt, allowing the unmanned Atlas to blast off with 3.36 tonnes of space station cargo, not to mention some Christmas presents for the awaiting crew.
Just before liftoff, Bruno urged: “Everyone cross your fingers and think happy weather thoughts.”
It apparently worked.
The Atlas soared through clouds and, 21 minutes later, ended up placing the Cygnus cargo carrier in the perfect orbit. Ecstatic launch controllers applauded, shook hands and hugged one another.
“We’re real happy to be back in space,” Orbital’s space systems group president Frank Culbertson said.
United Launch Alliance manager Vernon Thorp could not help but notice all the number fours in Sunday’s launch equation. Liftoff occurred at 4:44pm on the fourth launch attempt, and Orbital’s designation for the mission was number four.
“I guess the numbers just all lined up right today,” Thorp said.
The space station astronauts — two of them, including Kelly, deep into a one-year mission — have gone without US shipments since April. Two private companies contracted for more than US$3.5 billion by NASA to replenish the 250km-high lab are stuck on Earth with grounded rockets. Orbital ATK bought the United Launch Alliance’s rocket, the veteran Atlas V, for this supply mission.
Orbital’s previous supply run, its fourth, ended in a fiery explosion seconds after liftoff in October last year. SpaceX, the other supplier, suffered a launch failure in June on its eighth trip.
Russia also lost a supply ship earlier this year, but it has another resupply mission scheduled just before Christmas; Japan has also made a contribution.
Much-needed food is inside Orbital’s cargo carrier, named Cygnus after the swan constellation.
NASA likes to have a six-month food supply aboard the space station, but it is low because of the three failed flights. Space station program manager Kirk Shireman expects it would take another year to get the pantry full again — provided there are no further accidents.
Also aboard the newest Cygnus capsule are clothes, toiletries, spacewalking gear, air-supply tanks and science experiments.
This is the first time that the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V has served the space station. Normally used for satellite launches, it is the successor to the Atlas used to put John Glenn into orbit in 1962. Boeing intends to use the Atlas V to boost the Starliner capsules it is building to ferry astronauts to the space station beginning in 2017.
Orbital plans to use another Atlas rocket for a supply run in March, then return its own Antares rocket to flight from Virginia in May.
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