Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Cygnus to visit ISS this fall

Orbital Sciences' cargo spacecraft is set to make its first flight to the International Space Station in September. The Dulles, Va., company has a launch window between Sept. 14 and 19 for the Cygnus cargo ship. It will be launched atop an Orbital Science Antares rocket, which made its first test flight in April from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Orbital was awarded a NASA contract to provide at least eight resupply flights to the ISS. (Source: Space.com, 07/16/13) The first stage Antares is powered by twin Aerojet AJ26 engines tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss. Previous