Antares Lifts Off from the Wallops Flight Facility
After a day’s delay, an Antares rocket lifted off from the Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern shore of Virginia just after 5:30 this morning. The Cygnus cargo ship, the SS Sally Ride, at the top of the Antares is carrying 8200 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station – including food, hardware, experiments and more.
Sunday’s launch was scrubbed after fire alarms at the Dulles Flight Control facility outside of Washington, DC caused an evacuation just before launch. Once the Antares separates from Cygnus, Northrup Grumman takes over control of the Cygnus space craft and its eventual rendezvous with the ISS.
Monday morning’s launch was picture perfect with clear skies over Virginia. The Cygnus will rendezvous with the ISS early Wednesday morning with capture at 5:05. It will take about a week to unload the cargo, however Cygnus will remain bolted to the Unity module at the ISS through the holidays – leaving sometime in January of 2023.
This is Northrup Grumman’s 18th resupply mission to the ISS
