Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket lifts off from the NASA facility on Wallops Island, Va., Sunday, April 21, 2013. The rocket will eventually deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
A new rocket built as a commercial venture by Orbital Sciences Corp.
blasted off from the Virginia coast and streaked into space Sunday,
chalking up a picture-perfect maiden flight that sets the stage for
space station cargo delivery missions starting later this year."It's certainly was an amazing achievement for Orbital today, a great day for NASA, and another historic day for commercial spaceflight in America," said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the space agency's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program.
"The flight today was just beautiful, and it looks like all the objectives that we established for the flight today were 100 percent met."
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Running four days late because of a technical glitch last Wednesday and bad weather Friday and Saturday, the Antares booster put on a dramatic afternoon show as its two main engines, gulping a ton of liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel per second, pushed the 600,000-pound rocket skyward with 750,000 pounds of fiery thrust.
Carrying an 8,300-pound instrumented mockup of the Cygnus cargo carrier Orbital plans to use for space station resupply missions, the Antares climbed straight up from its seaside launch pad and then arced away to the southeast, visible from eastern North Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware, New York and beyond, clouds permitting.
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