Ramona Adams
NASA and Orbital ATK plan to launch a Cygnus spacecraft for its sixth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station between October 9 and October 13 as part of the company’s Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
The space agency said Wednesday Cygnus will lift off aboard an Orbital ATK-built Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.
Orbital ATK added the company and agency will determine a specific launch date after the completion of final operational milestones and technical reviews.
Cygnus will carry 5,290 pounds of supplies and science experiments to the space station, Orbital ATK added.
The company said Cygnus will deploy into low-Earth orbit, where it will use substantial maneuvering techniques to send the cargo from a low parking orbit to the ISS and the space station will subsequently capture the vehicle with a robotic arm.
Orbital ATK noted the spacecraft will carry out secondary payload operations after its departure from ISS that include the Saffire II payload experiment to study combustion behavior in microgravity and the NanoRack deployer to launch Spire Cubesats for weather forecasting functions.
