Cygnus Is in Orbit
Cargo Launched to Space Station Aboard Orbital-1 Mission
“The launch aboard Orbital’s Antares rocket took place from NASA’s Wallop’s Flight Facility in Virginia Thursday, at 1:07 p.m. EST.”
Orbital Launches Antares Rocket Carrying Cygnus On ISS Cargo Resupply Mission
“Under a $1.9 billion CRS contract with NASA, Orbital will use Antares and Cygnus to deliver up to 44,000 pounds (20,000 kilograms) of cargo to the ISS over eight missions through late 2016. For these missions, NASA will manifest a variety of essential items based on ISS program needs, including food, clothing, crew supplies, spare parts and equipment, and scientific experiments.”
So here’s a question… why are the Cygnus launches covered and commentated on by NASA and not the Dragon launches?
Dragon missions are covered on NASA TV however Space-x other flights that are not related to ISS are not. But it would be nice to see them too
SpaceX provides their own streaming video coverage of non-NASA-related missions. I watched all three Falcon 9 v1.1 liftoffs/ascents this way. Go to the SpaceX web site about 30 min. before scheduled liftoff and link the feed.
Yeah but NASA just passes the SpaceX broadcast along. For the Cygnus flights, NASA PAO has provided commentary.
I would think it’s because Wallops is a NASA facility. Although NASA PAO does also sometimes provide commentary on CCAFS launches such as the two SpaceX COTS demo flights.
Antares is, as I understand it, cobbled (ouch!) together from Russian rockets, partially managed by a Russian company, plus some ATK hardware (Castor 30). No issues with that; there is lots of criticism in the industry for not iterating.
But SpaceX captures the American heart, I suppose, being emblematic of a scrappy upstart and widely admired.
There you have it. Half-baked analysis from a non-technical observer who knows when to stand aside for one’s betters 🙂
Orbital’s Cygnus Update page hasn’t been updated since October of last year. Good job folks!