OrbitalHub

Antares, known during early development as Taurus II, is an expendable launch system developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation. Designed to launch payloads of mass up to 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) into low-Earth orbit, it made its maiden flight on 21 April 2013. Designed to launch the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA\’s COTS and CRS programs, Antares is the largest rocket operated by Orbital Sciences.

NASA awarded to Orbital a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Space Act Agreement (SAA) in 2008 to demonstrate delivery of cargo to the International Space Station. For these COTS missions Orbital intends to use Antares to launch its Cygnus spacecraft. In addition, Antares will compete for small-to-medium missions. On 12 December 2011 Orbital Sciences renamed the launch vehicle “Antares” from the previous designation of Taurus II, after the star of the same name.

Originally scheduled for 2012, the first Antares launch, designated A-ONE was conducted on 21 April 2013, carrying the Cygnus Mass Simulator (a boilerplate Cygnus spacecraft) and four CubeSats contracted by Spaceflight Incorporated: Dove 1 for Cosmogia Incorporated and three PhoneSat satellites – Alexander, Graham and Bell for NASA.

Prior to the launch, a 27-second test firing of the rocket\’s AJ26 engines was conducted successfully on 22 February 2013, following an attempt on 13 February which was abandoned before ignition.

A-ONE used the Antares 110 configuration, with a Castor 30A second stage and no third stage. The launch took place from Pad 0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. LP-0A was a former Conestoga launch complex which had only been used once before, in 1995, for the Conestoga\’s only orbital launch attempt. Antares became the largest — and first — liquid-fuelled rocket to fly from Wallops Island, as well as the largest rocket launched by Orbital Sciences.

The first attempt to launch the rocket, on 17 April 2013, was scrubbed after an umbilical detached from the rocket\’s second stage, and a second attempt on 20 April was scrubbed due to high altitude winds. At the third attempt on 21 April, the rocket lifted off at the beginning on its launch window. The launch window for all three attempts was three hours beginning at 21:00 UTC (17:00 EDT), shortening to two hours at the start of the terminal count, and ten minutes later in the count.

Source: Wikipedia

NASA dixit:

“President Obama\’s FY2014 budget request for NASA enables the agency to leverage capabilities in the Human Exploration and Operations, Science and Space Technology Mission Directorates to make significant yet affordable advances in our nation\’s capabilities and achieve the space goals set by the Administration. NASA will improve detection and characterization of asteroids, pursue solar electric propulsion demonstration, develop a mechanism to capture an asteroid and redirect it to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system and begin designing a mission to send humans to it using the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.”

Credit: NASA

Read more about the Asteroid Initiative…

NASA dixit:

“An unpiloted Russian resupply vehicle undocked from the International Space Station April 15 after spending five months attached to it. After delivering 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station crewmembers, the International Space Station Progress 49 vehicle separated from the station and fired thrusters to back away to a safe distance for a series of engine firings to gather engineering data for Russian ground controllers. Now loaded with trash, the Progress is scheduled to be deorbited on April 21 to burn up in the Earth\’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.”

Credit: NASA/Roscosmos

Read more about Progress…

 

On April 16, 2013, a Proton-M/Breeze-M launch vehicle lifted off from Baikonur with the telecommunications satellite Anik-G1.

Credit: Roscosmos

Read more about Proton-M…

NASA dixit:

“On April 6 at Wallops Flight Facility, NASA commercial partner Orbital Sciences Corporation rolled out the first fully-integrated Antares rocket to Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A , in preparation for its inaugural flight. Orbital is testing Antares under NASA\’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. NASA initiatives like COTS are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit.”

Credit: NASA

Read more about Antares…

NASA dixit:

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) may become one of the most dazzling in decades when it rounds the sun later this year. Like all comets, ISON is a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust. Often described as “dirty snowballs,” comets emit gas and dust whenever they venture near enough to the sun that the icy material transforms from a solid to gas, a process called sublimation. Jets powered by sublimating ice also release dust, which reflects sunlight and brightens the comet.

Based on ISON\’s orbit, astronomers think the comet is making its first-ever trip through the inner solar system. Before beginning its long fall toward the sun, the comet resided in the Oort comet cloud, a vast shell of perhaps a trillion icy bodies that extends from the outer reaches of the planetary system to about a third of the distance to the star nearest the sun.

Formally designated C/2012 S1 (ISON), the comet was discovered on Sept. 21, 2012, by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a telescope of the International Scientific Optical Network located near Kislovodsk.

Credit: NASA

Read more about Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)…