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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)

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Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Resupply

Low Earth Orbit Launch Area 0 A Wallops Island, 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: Antares
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 Antares Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    3
  • Length
    42.5 m
  • Diameter
    3.9 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    286 T
  • Thrust
    3844 kN
Family
  • Name
    Antares 230
  • Family
    Antares
  • Variant
    230
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Antares 230
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
    7800 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

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CEO: Kathy Warden Founded: 2015 Successes: 14 Failures: 0 Pending: 3

Agency Type: Commercial

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 Island, Virginia, USA

Launch Area 0 A


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Starlink Group 6-16
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

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


Soyuz 2.1a
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1 week, 4 days ago
Soyuz MS-24
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

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Firefly Alpha
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1 week, 5 days ago
FLTA003 (VICTUS NOX)
Space Launch Complex 2W - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Third flight of the Firefly Alpha small sat launcher, carrying a payload for the US Department of Defense.


Falcon 9
Success
2 weeks, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 7-2
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Atlas V 551
Success
2 weeks, 3 days ago
NROL-107 (Silent Barker)
Space Launch Complex 41 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Classified space situational awareness (SSA) payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).


Long March 6A
Success
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Yaogan 40
Launch Complex 9A - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

3 Chinese reconnaissance satellites of unknown purposes, officially reported as for "Electromagnetic environment probing" purposes.


Falcon 9
Success
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Starlink Group 6-14
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

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


SpaceShipTwo
Success
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Galactic 03
Spaceport America - Air launch to Suborbital flight

Third commercial Virgin Galactic mission.


H-IIA 202
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2 weeks, 6 days ago
XRISM & SLIM
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-1 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), formerly the X-Ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (XARM), is a replacement for the Hitomi satellite that …


Long March 4C
Success
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Yaogan 33-03
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

The Yaogan 33-03 is a Chinese military “remote sensing” satellite of unknown purpose.