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U.S. Commercial Cargo Spaceship Heads to the International Space Station

Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket blasted off Nov. 12 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to send the company’s Cygnus spacecraft to orbit on the start o...

Cygnus CRS OA-8 (S.S. Gene Cernan)

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Resupply

Low Earth Orbit Launch Area 0 A Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA Probability: 95%

This is the ninth planned flight of the Orbital ATK's unmanned resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its eighth flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Antares 230

Family:
Configuration: 230

Antares known during early development as Taurus II, is an expendable launch system developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (now part of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems after Northrop Grumman acquired Orbital ATK) and the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau to launch the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's COTS and CRS programs. Able to launch payloads heavier than 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) into low-Earth orbit, Antares is the largest rocket operated by Orbital ATK. Antares launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and made its inaugural flight on April 21, 2013.

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Specifications

Stages
3
Length
42.5 m
Diameter
3.9 m
Fairing Diameter
―
Launch Mass
286.0 T
Thrust
3844.0 kN

Family

Name
Antares 230
Family
―
Variant
230
Alias
―
Full Name
Antares 230

Payload Capacity

Launch Cost
―
Low Earth Orbit
7800.0 kg
Geostationary Transfer Orbit
―
Direct Geostationary
―
Sun-Synchronous Capacity
―

Cygnus CRS OA-8E

Active Cargo Unmanned Payload Capacity: 3750 kg

Destination: International Space Station

Serial Number: None

Cygnus CRS OA-8E, also known as Orbital ATK CRS-8E, was the ninth flight of the Orbital ATK unmanned resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its eighth flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. Orbital and NASA jointly developed a new space transportation system to provide commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station (ISS). Under the Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) program, then Orbital Sciences designed and built Antares, a medium-class launch vehicle; Cygnus, an advanced maneuvering spacecraft, and a Pressurized Cargo Module which is provided by Orbital's industrial partner Thales Alenia Space.

Cygnus Enhanced Details

Northrop Grumman Space Systems

(NGSS)

CEO: Kathy Warden Founded: 2015 Successes: 15 Failures: 0 Pending: 4

Agency Type:

Northrup Grumman Space Systems designs, builds and delivers space, defence and aviation-related systems to customers around the world. They aquired Orbital ATK in 2018 along with its launchers and ongoing missions.

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Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

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