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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)

Circle Image

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.

See Details
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

Northrop Grumman Space Systems

(NGSS)

CEO: Kathy Warden Founded: 2015 Successes: 14 Failures: 0 Pending: 6

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.

INFO WIKI

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Launch Area 0 A


Electron
Success
1 day, 23 hours ago
Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Launch of a yet to identified satellite to SSO for an undisclosed customer. The customer is suspected to be Low Earth Orbit communication satellite c…


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 8 hours ago
Dragon CRS-2 SpX-31
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

31st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commer…


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
2 days, 11 hours ago
Ionosfera-M 1 & 2
Cosmodrome Site 1S - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation

Ionosfera is a constellation of four ionospheric and magnetospheric research satellites developed by for Roscosmos for the project Ionozond. The s…


H3-22
Success
3 days, 3 hours ago
DSN 3 (Kirameki 3)
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

DSN 3, also known as Kirameki 3, is a geostationary communications satellite to be used for military communications by the Japanese military.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week ago
Kosmos 2579 (Bars-M No. 6)
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Bars-M is the second incarnation of the Bars project, which was started in the mid 1990ies to develop a success…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 10-13
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 9-9
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 20 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 2
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Shenzhou 19
Launch Area 4 (SLS-1 / 921) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Eighth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Starlink Group 10-8
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 22 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 6 days ago
NROL-167
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Fourth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office t…