Orbital rocket blasts off on space station cargo run

An unmanned Antares rocket owned by Orbital ATK Inc blasted


 off from Virginia on Monday with a cargo ship for the 


International Space Station, marking the booster's return 


to flight two years after a previous version exploded at 


liftoff.

The 14-story-tall rocket, powered by a pair of new Russian-


made engines, lifted off from Wallops Island, Virginia, at 


7:45 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT), a NASA TV broadcast showed. 


Launch was delayed five minutes to give the team extratime 


to review their checklists, Orbital President Frank 


Culbertson told reporters.

"It’s such a feeling of elation to see the vehicle take 


off. ... I’m very happy to see Antares back," said Amanda 


Davis, Orbital’s director of program engineering.

The rocket carried a Cygnus capsule loaded with 5,290 


pounds (2,400 kg) of food, supplies, equipment and science 


experiments for the space station, a $100-billion 


laboratory in orbit about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

The capsule is expected to reach the station on Sunday 


after lingering several days in orbit to allow time for a 


Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three new crew members to 


reach the outpost on Friday. The Soyuz is slated to launch 


Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The last Antares launch, on Oct. 28, 2014, ended in 


disaster a few seconds after liftoff due to a problem with 


the booster’s refurbished, Soviet-era engines. After the 


accident, Orbital sped up plans to replace the motors.

During the downtime, Orbital bought rides for two Cygnus 


cargo ships aboard Atlas rockets, built and flown 


by United 


Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp and 


Boeing Co.

Orbital conducted a 30-second engine test firing of the 


Antares at the Virginia launch pad on May 31, but had 


never 


flown the refurbished rocket before Monday.

The mission became more crucial for the U.S. space agency 


after a Sept. 1 accident destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket 


operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and a $200 million Israeli 


communications satellite.

The accident, which occurred while the rocket was being 


fueled for a routine prelaunch test, has temporarily 


grounded SpaceX, the only company apart from Orbital 


currently contracted by NASA to fly cargo to the space 


station.