Orbital Sciences has targeted Sunday, July 13 at 12.52 EDT to launch cargo up to the ISS from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. This will be the second of eight resupply missions NASA has commissioned from Orbital.
Orbital will use an Antares rocket to launch a Cygnus spacecraft loaded with 1,657 kg of cargo. The liftoff sequence will last about ten minutes, and then Cygnus will separate from the rocket, beginning its four-day-long orbit. The spacecraft will then dock with the ISS for about 40 days. Astronauts will unload all of the supplies onboard, including care packages for the astronauts, food, maintenance equipment, and materials for experiments. The crew will fill the Cygnus spacecraft with about 1,350 pounds of garbage that will be incinerated when it attempts to re-enter the atmosphere.
NASA will broadcast several events surrounding this mission; all of which can be viewed below:
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