April 22, 2013, 10:38 | Text: Vladimir Paramonov
Sunday, April 21, from the spaceport at Wallops Island (Virginia, USA) launched a private booster Antares, developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation.
| launch of Antares (here and below the photo NASA TV). |
«Antares” to be used to run the Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. The relevant contract valued at $ 1.9 billion awarded to NASA.
Interestingly, as the first stage Antares uses two oxygen-kerosene rocket engine NK-33, developed for the Soviet lunar program nearly half a century ago. At the second stage is powered by Castor 30, created Alliant Techsystems.
Antares launch was scheduled for April 17, 2013, but was canceled 12 minutes before the start due to a technical fault: there was a spontaneous disconnect the cable connection from the second stage carrier. Rescheduled for April 20 launch, too, did not take place – because of unfavorable weather conditions: wind speed was higher than the maximum allowable. As a result, the rocket was launched on April 21.
Antares successfully put into orbit the overall layout of the space truck Cygnus, equipped with sensors that record the parameters of the flight. In addition, the orbit delivered three small NASA satellite (Alexander, Graham and Bell) and one commercial nano-satellite (Dove-1).
Layout cargo module will stay in orbit for at least two weeks, after which will be burned in Earth’s atmosphere.
recall that about a year ago docking with the ISS made the first non-state apparatus Dragon of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). This ship will be used to deliver into orbit astronauts and cargo.
Prepared Materials Orbital Sciences Corporation.
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