Successful Launch for Antares
Orbital ATK Successfully Launches the Antares Rocket on its Return to Flight (with video), SpaceRef
“In a successful return to flight, Orbital ATK launched the upgraded Antares rocket with the Cygnus spacecraft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station. The launch scheduled for 7:40 pm EDT (2340 GMT) was delayed briefly due to a minor engine anomaly. Mission launch control cleared the rocket to launch which it did at 7:45 pm EDT, right as launch window was closing.”
Keith’s note: It has been 2 years since I tried to watch a launch from the street in front of my house in Reston, VA. Not an easy thing to do in a town that is certified as a ‘tree city’. Luckily the notch in the trees in the direction of Wallops is still there. About 2 minutes after launch a steady red light appeared and I could see it for another minute or so.
Congrats to them. But I do have to say that is about the worst launch video I’ve ever seen. What’s with that?
My daughter had taekwondo testing until 7:30. Luckily there was a very good view in the correct direction on the far side of the parking lot. We ran over there after the test, bringing 3 other families with us. A couple people live streamed their phones so we knew about the delay, and then my daughter spotted a bright red light rising over the Lowes in the distance. All the kids and many of the adults were really excited, me being the only vaguely “space” person in the group. It was a great show. Pity the Wallops app I had downloaded from the itunes store and used with great success before was useless. No info on the delay, the Ustream link didn’t work, and even the twitter feed was not convincingly up to date. The only thing that was helpful was the compass feature, but I pretty much knew which way to look anyway. If that app is old and abandoned, it shouldn’t still be available for download.