Success
Cygnus CRS OA-8 (S.S. Gene Cernan)
Resupply
Orbital ATK(OA)Commercial
Antares 230
LEOorbit
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.
Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 12:19 PM
Replay
Mission details
The International Space Station programme is tied together by a complex set of legal, political and financial agreements between the sixteen nations involved in the project, governing ownership of the various components, rights to crewing and utilization, and responsibilities for crew rotation and resupply of the International Space Station. It was conceived in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, during the Space Station Freedom project as it was originally called.
Nov 20, 1998 — ongoing
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station.The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarded $1.6 billion to SpaceX for twelve cargo Dragon and $1.9 billion to Orbital Sciences for eight Cygnus flights, covering deliveries to 2016. The Falcon 9 and Antares rockets were also developed under the CRS program to deliver cargo spacecraft to the ISS.
Dec 23, 2008 — ongoing
Orbital Attempt
#5,690
OA Mission
#5
Pad Launch
#8
Location Launch
#61
Designator
2017-071
Weather GO
95%
Launch Window
NET
Nov 12, 2017, 12:19 PM
Schedule Changes
1 update
Lift Off
12:14 PM
Window Open
12:19 PM
Window Close
Antares 230 Specs
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.
Length
42.5 m
Diameter
3.9 m
Launch Mass
286 t
Thrust
3,844 kN
LEO Capacity
7,800 kg
Reusable
No
Maiden Flight
2016
Fastest Turnaround
5mo 1d
Total Launches
5
Successful
5
Failed
0
Consecutive Success
5
Maiden flight: Oct 17, 2016
Launch Area 0 A
LP-0A was first built for the failed Conestoga rocket program. The original launch tower was subsequently demolished in September 2008. A new pad facility was built from 2009 to 2011 for Orbital Sciences Taurus II, now renamed Antares.
Total Launches
19
Orbital Attempts
19
Fastest Turnaround
3mo 15d
Orbital ATK
Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems. Orbital ATK was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018.
Founded
2015
Administrator
President: David W. Thompson
Total Launches
6
Successful
6
Failed
0
Pending
0
Consecutive Success
6
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA
Wallops Flight Facility is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and primarily serves to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other federal agencies. WFF includes an extensively instrumented range to support launches of more than a dozen types of sounding rockets; small expendable suborbital and orbital rockets; high-altitude balloon flights carrying scientific instruments for atmospheric and astronomical research; and, using its Research Airport, flight tests of aeronautical research aircraft, including uncrewed aerial vehicles.
Timezone
America/New_York
Local Launch Time
Nov 12, 2017, 7:19 AM
Total Launches
86
Total Landings
0
Coordinates
37.9333, -75.4678