Launch Window Pushed Back To December 18

Orbital's Antares and Cygnus teams are in the advanced stages of preparation for the company's first operational resupply mission to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract. The launch to the Station will originate from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

The launch had originally been planned for December 17, but ongoing pre-launch testing took a bit longer than expected which resulted in shifting the targeted launch date by one day to December 18. In the next several days, the Antares rocket will be installed on the transporter/erector/launcher vehicle and the Cygnus spacecraft will be mated with the upper stage of the rocket. The company said that the Antares team continued making progress over the weekend toward the launch of Orbital's first CRS resupply mission next week, however ongoing pre-launch testing took a bit longer than expected which resulted in shifting the targeted launch date by one day to December 18.

Following the mating process, a series of tests to ensure all systems are properly working together will ensue, as will late- and final-loading of cargo, the encapsulation of Cygnus by the rocket's payload fairing, and finally, the roll-out and initial on-pad operations that are currently scheduled for December 15.

In the next several days, the Antares rocket will be installed on the transporter/erector/launcher vehicle and the Cygnus spacecraft will be mated with the upper stage of the rocket. The launch window on December 18 is from 2142 to 2147 EST. Orbital says additional updates will be posted in the days ahead.

(NASA image)

FMI: www.orbital.com