This is the eighth planned flight of the Orbital ATK's unmanned resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its seventh flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. Orbital ATK named the vehicle after astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and pioneer of human spaceflight.
An Atlas V with a 4 meter diameter fairing, no boosters and a single centaur upper stage engine.
See DetailsCygnus CRS OA-7, also known as Orbital ATK CRS-7, is the eighth flight of the Orbital ATK unmanned resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its seventh 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 Services (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. The OA-7 is named the S.S. John Glenn in honor of astronaut and senator John Glenn, the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth on Mercury 6 and the oldest to go to space on STS-95.
Cygnus Enhanced DetailsUnited Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. ULA launches from both coasts of the US. They launch their Atlas V vehicle from LC-41 in Cape Canaveral and LC-3E at Vandeberg. Their Delta IV launches from LC-37 at Cape Canaveral and LC-6 at Vandenberg.
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