NASA OKs Va. rocket test launch
Published: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 8:28 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 8:28 a.m.
ATLANTIC, Va. - NASA gave the green light on Tuesday for a private company to proceed with a test launch of an unmanned rocket that would eventually help carry supplies to the International Space Station, but the weather forecast could cause delays.
NASA said there's only a 45 percent chance weather conditions will allow Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles to launch its Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Va. as planned Wednesday.
The potential obstacles are low-cloud cover and a slight chance of thunderstorms, said John Dickerson, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility test director.
Anatres would be the largest rocket to ever lift off from Wallops Island and could be visible in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York during the evening commute. The company plans to launch the 131-foot-tall rocket with a gross weight of more than 617,000 pounds sometime between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Orbital will try again Thursday if the weather doesn't cooperate. NASA is also prepared to extend the launch window for several more days if necessary.
The ability to have a large launch window is one of the reasons the Dulles-based company chose to launch its rocket from Virginia instead of Florida, which has a busier rocket-launch schedule. The goal of the test launch is to send a practice payload into orbit and see if can safely separate from the rocket. That payload won't dock with the International Space Station, but it will go into orbit and then burn up upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere in about two weeks, according to Orbital officials.
The test launch is considered a watershed event for Orbital, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. More than 16,000 rockets have been launched from Wallops Island since 1945, but most of them have been small suborbital research rockets.
The Virginia Commercial Space Flight authority built a launch pad at the NASA facility specifically for Orbital in hopes of cashing in on growth in the commercial space industry. In addition to ferrying supplies to the International Space Station, Orbital plans to use its Antares rocket to send commercial and government satellites into orbit.
Orbital is one of two companies NASA has contracted with to deliver supplies to the International Space Station following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
California-based SpaceX has already docked with the International Space Station three times and Orbital officials said Tuesday they are almost caught up and ready to start delivering supplies as well, despite getting its contract two years after SpaceX in 2008. Orbital is under contract to make eight deliveries to the space station over five years.
If the Antares test launch goes as planned, Orbital plans to send its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship on a test run to the International Space Station this summer. The test launch scheduled for Wednesday will carry a practice payload that matches the weight and dimensions of Cygnus, but it will only carry instruments that will keep tabs on the flight. After about two weeks, company officials expect that unit to burn up in the atmosphere as it returns to earth. The real cargo ship will also burn up in the atmosphere after it drops off its supplies to the International Space Station and is loaded up with trash.
SpaceX, which also hopes to ferry astronauts to the space station, fills up its cargo unit with supplies and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.
If Orbital's summer demonstration flight goes well, the company would make its first cargo delivery under the $1.9 billion contract in the fall.
Frank Culbertson, general manager of Orbital's advanced programs group, said if something goes wrong the company is prepared to learn and make adjustments, but he doesn't anticipate that happening. He said he's confident everything will go as planned on Wednesday.
"I think we're going to see a nice show tomorrow," he said.
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