• How Orbital's falling satellite sparked a UFO mystery in South America

    Eyewitness video shows bright points of light moving across the skies over Temuco, Chile.

    By James Oberg, NBC News Space Analyst

    When Orbital Sciences' test spacecraft fell from orbit last week, the company saw the fiery blaze as a cause for celebration — but it was also the cause of a UFO mystery, at least for a little while.

    The spacecraft was a dummy payload, which was launched into orbit on April 21 aboard Orbital's newly developed Antares booster during its maiden flight. The satellite's primary purpose was to simulate the mass of the company's Cygnus cargo capsule, which will eventually be launched by the Antares to resupply the International Space Station.

    Orbital never intended the Cygnus Mass Simulator to stay in space. Its orbit gradually decayed over the course of more than two weeks, and on the night of May 9-10 it finally made its descent through the atmosphere. As it fell, aerodynamic forces heated it up, and tore it apart. It broke into several dozen flaming fireballs, streaking together from horizon to horizon across the evening skies of Chile and Argentina.

    Just by luck, the spectacle unfolded over a populated region. It was widely seen, and widely recorded. Within hours, a dozen videos of the sky show were posted on YouTube.

    The videos thrilled the Antares team. "It was a spectacular ending to a great beginning,” said Barry Beneski, the company's publicity director. Operators in their flight dynamics lab, who had designed the mission, were more down to Earth: "Way cool!" was their first comment.

    But for many of the eyewitnesses, the aerial blaze was a real mystery, since no advance word of the spacecraft's destruction had been issued. Was it a comet or a meteor shower? A blimp or fleet of Chinese lanterns? Theories raced around the Internet.

    The leading theory, as might be expected, was that the object was a descending spaceship. The scattered dazzlers assembled themselves in the perceptions of many witnesses as outlining a large structure with mounted lights. It was widely seen as an awesome military secret, or even an interplanetary visitor.

    It was an honest misperception.

    Was the Pentagon in the dark?

    It didn't help that the U.S. Strategic Command apparently misidentified the object in orbit. In advance of re-entry, the Pentagon's space catalog listed it as a tiny test satellite that should have burned up without a trace.

    Orbital Sciences

    This map of South America shows segments of the Cygnus Mass Simulator's final orbits, ending with re-entry over Argentina. The final track matches up well with UFO sightings on the night of May 9-10.

    Within hours of the satellite's re-entry, Canadian amateur satellite tracker Ted Molczan matched up the UFO reports with the satellite catalog entry. "The time and location of the sighting correlates with the re-entry of 'object Bell,'" he reported on the SeeSat discussion board.

    Molczan added that the Strategic Command had issued a "prediction" several hours after the actual re-entry, saying that the satellite would hit the atmosphere soon after midnight GMT on May 10. The trajectory had the minisatellite coming down over the area of South America where the UFO sightings were reported.

    The problem was, the Bell minisatellite described by the Strategic Command and NORAD was only 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide, about the size of a tissue box. When Molczan rechecked the records, he determined that the minisatellite should have fallen from orbit just days after its launch. The Antares booster stage was destroyed during re-entry on May 1. That left only one other sizable object associated with the Antares launch: the 8,377-pound (3,800-kilogram) Cygnus Mass Simulator.

    The Strategic Command's public affairs office has not yet confirmed the correct identity of the object that was seen falling out of orbit, despite repeated inquiries from NBC News.

    Other secrets
    Orbital Sciences, the spacecraft's owner, would have been legally responsible for any damage caused by falling debris. For that reason, the company took great pains to reduce the potential debris hazard.

    Orbital Sciences

    A schematic shows the latticework structure inside Orbital's Cygnus Mass Simulator.

    The mass simulator payload was built using an open lattice structure, designed to tear apart quickly during re-entry. Each of the separate pieces was meant to burn up completely, providing observers with a view of fiery streaks flashing across the sky. And that's exactly what happened.

    No advance warning was given, because no threat was expected. Orbital's Beneski said  the company merely planned to post a note on the project's Facebook page, at some point after re-entry. The inquiries from NBC News caught Orbital's officials by surprise — but they then responded fully and quickly.

    UFO buffs shouldn't be disappointed. The event demonstrated that large satellite re-entries can really look like giant spaceships with mounted lights. Such reports fill the files that have been kept by UFO researchers over the past half-century — and many of those reports could well be unrecognized satellite re-entries as well.

    More about UFOs:

    NBC News space analyst James Oberg spent 22 years at NASA's Johnson Space Center as a Mission Control operator and an orbital designer.

  • New private rocket launches into orbit on maiden voyage

     

    NASA / Bill Ingalls

    The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket is seen as it launches from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Sunday.

    By Tariq Malik, Space.com

    A new commercial U.S. rocket soared into the Virginia sky Sunday on a debut flight that paves the way for eventual cargo flights to the International Space Station for NASA.

    The third try was the charm for the private Antares rocket, which launched into space from a new pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, its twin engines roaring to life at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) to carry a mock cargo ship out over the Atlantic Ocean and into orbit. The successful liftoff came after two delays caused by a minor mechanical glitch and bad weather. 

    Built by the Dulles, Va.- based spaceflight company Orbital Sciences, the Antares rocket is a two-stage booster designed to launch tons of supplies to the International Space Station aboard a new unmanned cargo ship called Cygnus. Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to provide at least eight resupply flights to the station using Antares and Cygnus. [See photos of Antares rocket's 1st launch] 

    "Antares has delivered the A-ONE test mission payload into orbit," an Orbital Sciences commentator said. There were cheers out of Orbital's launch control room at ever successful stage of the launch, with the team breaking out in handshakes and hugs as the rocket reached orbit. 

    Orbital had much riding on today's successful liftoff, which marked a critical test flight of a new commercial launch system.

    The company has invested about $300 million developing the Cygnus spacecraft alone, slightly more in the rocket itself, Orbital executive vice president Frank Culbertson told reporters after the successful launch. The result, he added, was an amazing show with apparently no significant glitches aside from a brush fire ignited near the launch pad.

    "This was a majestic liftoff during ascent," said Culbertson, who is a former NASA astronaut and Orbital's general manager for advanced programs. The Antares rocket as a low thrust to weight ratio, which means it has a slow start rising off the launch pad, he added. "It was a beautiful liftoff."

    NASA chief Charles Bolden attended the launch and lauded the Orbital launch team on the successful flight.

    "This is an incredibly historic day," Bolden told Orbital's team. "You couldn't have gone any farther without today. This was a first, huge step." [Launch Video: Antares Soars Into Orbit on 1st Flight] 

    NASA TV

    The first private Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corp. launches toward space from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., on April 21, 2013. It marks the first flight test for the rocket.

    Virginia's biggest rocket launch 
    Antares is the largest rocket ever to launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. It lifted off from the new Pad 0A, which is at Wallops but managed by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) and overseen by the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority. Altogether, the Commonwealth of Virginia and MARS officials spent about $140 million to build the new launch pad complex.

    Today's launch was expected to be visible from locations all along the East Coast, from Maine to South Carolina, weather permitting. Orbital even released several photos advising what the rocket would look like from famous landmarks around the Capitol. 

    Orbital initially tried to launch the Antares rocket on Wednesday but called off the attempt when a vital data cable separated from the rocket earlier than planned, about 12 minutes before liftoff. The company spent Thursday analyzing the glitch and opted not to try for a Friday launch due to foul weather. Strong winds forced a delay on Saturday, but Mother Nature cooperated for Sunday's launch.

    In a Twitter post before launch, officials at NASA's Wallops facility reported that the site's visitor center was completely packed for today's launch, despite the delays. MARS officials hope the Orbital launches will help serve as a new source of tourism for the region.

    "It's definitely something we're all excited about," Basia Shields, manager of the Lighthouse Inn on nearby Chincoteague Island, told SPACE.com before Sunday's liftoff. "I mean, this is the off season for us and almost every room is booked just for this thing."

    Private space cargo ships 
    Orbital Sciences is one of two companies with NASA contracts for commercial cargo deliveries to the space station. The other firm is Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., which has a $1.6 billion deal for 12 space station cargo missions.

    With the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011, the agency is relying on commercial companies like Orbital Sciences and SpaceX to provide the vital resupply services — and, eventually, crew launches — required to keep the space station fully stocked and staffed. Before the commercial program, NASA was dependent on Russian, Japanese and European cargo ships for supplies, and it still temporarily relies on Russian Soyuz vehicles for crewed missions.

    "This is a new way of doing business, and with any new investment, there is a risk," Alan Lindenmoyer, head of NASA's commercial crew and cargo program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters after the successful launch. "But it sure is nice to see a return on that investment and things go your way. I think this is a great day for everyone."

    NASA picked Orbital Sciences as a commercial cargo partner in 2008, awarding the firm $288 million to begin developing the Cygnus spacecraft under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. SpaceX won its first COTS award in 2006.

    "This is the culmination of a plan that we've been on for several years," NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver told reporters before the Wednesday launch try. "I am thrilled to have two competitors."

    Garver said that at least two companies providing cargo services for NASA is vital since it assures access to space and does not allow one company to have a monopoly on station cargo deliveries.

    Orbital and SpaceX also offer slightly different services. Unlike SpaceX's Dragon space capsules, which can return cargo to Earth from the station, Orbital's Cygnus vehicles are disposable and are intentionally burned up in the atmosphere at mission's end. 

    NASA TV

    The Earth drops away from Orbital Sciences first Antares rocket in this amazing view captured by the rocket's ATK-built second stage during a test launch on April 21, 2013.

    Antares test flight success 
    During the test launch, the Antares rocket launched on a southeast trajectory over the Atlantic and took 10 minutes to reach its target orbit 155 miles (250 kilometers) above Earth. The rocket carried an 8,377-pound (3,800 kilograms) dummy payload to mimic the weight of an actual Cygnus spacecraft. The mockup was packed with 70 sensors to record how the Antares rocket launch would affect a Cygnus vehicle.

    "It looks like all the expectations we had for today's flight were beautifully met," Lindenmoyer said. 

    The dummy module is expected to spend at least two weeks in orbit before burning up in Earth's atmosphere, Orbital officials said.

    Antares also carried three coffee cup-size Phonesat satellites — called Alexander, Graham and Bell — into orbit as part of a space technology experiment for NASA's Ames Research Center in California. The tiny 4-inch-wide satellites use commercial smartphones as their main computers. Another small satellite the size of a bread box, called Dove-1, also rode into orbit as part of a commercial agreement for the California-based company Cosmogia. Dove-1 is reportedly an Earth-observation and remote sensing satellite, according to a NOAA remote sensing license document.

    Orbital's Antares rocket is a two-stage booster that stands 131 feet (40 meters) tall and weighs 639,341 pounds (290,000 kilograms) at liftoff. 

    The first stage is powered by two Aerojet AJ26 liquid-fueled rocket engines originally developed to launch Russia's giant N-1 moon rocket in the 1960s. Today's launch marked their first flight ever from U.S. soil.  The Antares second stage is a solid-fueled motor built by Allliant Techsystems (ATK), the same company that built the twin solid rocket boosters for NASA's space shuttle launches.

    NASA / Bill Ingalls

    The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket is seen on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad-0A at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on April 16, 2013 on Wallops Island, Va.

    With the test flight now complete, Orbital is now looking forward to up to two more launches this year, both of them headed to theInternational Space Station. That first cargo flight, a demonstration mission, could launch in late June or early July, Orbital officials said.

    "This is not a one-shot deal," Lindenmoyer said. "They're going to be here awhile."

    Culbertson said that Orbital hopes to launch Antares rockets from Wallops every three to six months for the cargo delivery flights.

    Editor's note: If you snap a great photo of Orbital's Antares rocket launch that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

     UPDATE: This story was updated at 7:52 p.m. EDT to include new comments and details of today's Antares rocket launch.

    Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on  SPACE.com.

    Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    This story was originally published on Sat Apr 20, 2013 5:17 PM EDT

  • Weather forecast leads to another delay for first Antares rocket launch

    Steve Helber / AP

    Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket vents fuel as it sits on its Virginia launch pad.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


    Orbital Sciences Corp. is postponing the maiden launch of its two-stage Antares rocket until Saturday at the earliest, due to an unfavorable weather forecast for Friday.

    The Antares rocket was originally due to blast off Thursday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., and go on an orbital test flight in preparation for cargo trips to the International Space Station. That first launch attempt was aborted with 12 minutes to go in the countdown, because an umbilical data cable was unplugged prematurely from the rocket's upper stage.

    Orbital determined that the cable was pulled out because of a "slight hydraulic movement" of a launch pad structure. The company also said there wasn't enough slack in the cable. "Neither issue alone would have caused the umbilical disconnect, however, the combination resulted in the anomaly," Orbital said in a mission update on Thursday. Small adjustments were made to the launch pad equipment to fix the problem, and the launch team started making preparations for liftoff on Friday.

    Later Thursday, Orbital said weather conditions at the Virginia pad were expected to deteriorate on Friday and then improve significantly. The launch team decided to wait out Friday's weather and aim for launch at 5 p.m. ET Saturday. Sunday would serve as a backup launch opportunity.

    The Antares is due to launch a dummy payload into orbit as a rehearsal for future flights that would send robotic Cygnus cargo carriers to the space station. If Orbital's test flights are successful, the Virginia-based company could begin cargo runs under the terms of an eight-mission, $1.9 billion resupply contract with NASA. California-based SpaceX is already flying its Dragon cargo capsules to and from the space station under a separate 12-mission, $1.6 billion contract.

    NASA struck deals with Orbital and SpaceX to provide U.S.-based cargo transfer capability in the wake of the space shuttle fleet's retirement in 2011. The space agency is also working with SpaceX and two other companies, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp., to develop crew-capable spaceships for space station trips. Yet another NASA program is aimed at creating a new heavy-lift rocket and Orion crew vehicle for journeys beyond low Earth orbit.

    More about the Antares rocket:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Orbital's Antares rocket cleared for its maiden launch into orbit

    Brea Reeves/NASA Wallops Flight Facility

    The sun rises over NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, where the first Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences stands poised to launch on its test flight from Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Liftoff set for 5 pm ET on April 17, 2013.

    By Tariq Malik, Space.com

    WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. —The biggest private rocket ever to launch from Virginia's Eastern Shore is ready to take its maiden voyage on Wednesday, the rocket's builders say.

    NASA and the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp. have officially cleared the company's new Antares rocket for launch, setting the stage for what will be a critical test flight from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility here. Liftoff is set for Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT).

    "It's going to be the biggest, brightest and loudest thing ever launched from Wallops," Orbital CEO Frank Culbertson, a former NASA astronaut, told reporters Tuesday. "It's going to be visible up and down the East Coast." [How to see the Antares rocket launch]

    You can watch the Antares rocket launch webcast on Space.com, courtesy of NASA.

    The Antares rocket is a two-stage booster that stands 131 feet (40 meters) tall and is designed to launch Orbital's robotic Cygnus spacecraft on cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station. The Dulles-based Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to provide at least eight cargo missions to the station. NASA picked Orbital Sciences as a commercial cargo provider in 2008.

    With NASA's space shuttle  fleet retired, the space agency is relying on commercial rockets and spacecraft to serve as the vital supply line for the space station. Another company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., has a $1.6 billion contract for 12 cargo missions under a similar deal. 

    SpaceX launches its rockets from Florida, which has a long tradition of space launches, and has already flown two delivery flights and one test mission under that program.

    "This does represent a new way of doing business for NASA," NASA's commercial crew program manager Alan Lindenmoyer said. "We're sharing the cost."

    Orbital officials said the company began developing the Antares rocket on its own, and later received up to $288 million in NASA support to help develop the Cygnus craft. So far, Orbital has completed 24 of the 29 milestones required to receive that $288 million. The company also added in "several hundred million" of its own funds for Cygnus, Culbertson said.

    Orbital is hoping that investment pays off not only in NASA contracts for station cargo missions, but also in deals with commercial customers who want to use Antares and Cygnus. But first, the Antares rocket must prove its spaceworthiness, and that's where Wednesday's test flight comes in.

    Orbital's Antares rocket uses two Aerojet AJ26 liquid-fueled engines, modernized versions of a design originally developed to launch Russia's N-1 moon rocket in the 1960s, to power its first stage. The second stage is powered by a new solid rocket motor built by veteran solid-fueled motor builder ATK, which also built the boosters for NASA's space shuttles.

    The Antares test flight will lift off from a brand-new launch pad, called Pad 0A, at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a commercial spaceport built at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and overseen by the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority. It's the first test for the launch pad, too.

    Orbital Sciences Corporation looks to become the second commercial company to ship cargo to the International Space Station. The un-manned Cygnus spacecraft would dock to ISS with the help of the station's robotic arm.

    According to Orbital officials, the test flight could be visible from as far north as Portland, Maine, and as far south as Charleston, S.C., weather permitting. It should definitely be visible as a bright light soaring southeastward across the sky from Washington, D.C., the home of Congress. Culbertson said he hopes lawmakers in Washington see the rocket launch.

    "That's a new experience," Culbertson said. "People think you have to go to Florida to see a space launch."

    The test flight will be the highest profile launch yet for the Wallops Flight Facility, which was established in 1945 as a center for aerodynamics research. Today, the facility is NASA's hub for small suborbital rocket launches and balloon science missions. More than 16,000 small rockets have been launched on short science missions since the facility became operational.

    But Antares is the biggest rocket yet to reach the launch pad. NASA and Orbital officials made it clear that Wednesday's test flight was just that — a test — and one that could fail. Just making it to the launch pad was a feat in itself, they added.

    "Regardless of whether it is a good day or a bad day, or something in between, for tomorrow…whatever happens, it's been a good job to get us where we are today," said Phil McAlister, NASA's director of commercial spaceflight development.

    Editor's note: If you snap a great photo of Orbital's Antares rocket launch that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

    Visit Space.com for complete coverage of the Antares rocket launch on Wednesday.

    Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

    Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Watch online as Antares rocket blasts off on first flight

    Brea Reeves/NASA Wallops Flight Facility

    The sun rises over NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, where the first Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences stands poised to launch on its test flight from Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore on Wednesday.

    By Tariq Malik
    Space.com

    WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — An untested commercial rocket is poised to launch into space from Virginia's Eastern Shore on Wednesday, and you can watch the test flight live online.

    The new private Antares rocket, built by the Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corp., is slated to blast off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility at the southern tip of this small island at 5 p.m. EDT. If all goes well, the test flight will pave the way for the future unmanned cargo deliveries to the International Space Station. 

    NASA will broadcast the launch live on NASA TV beginning at 4 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. You can watch the Antares rocket launch webcast on Space.com, courtesy of NASA. Visibility maps released by the Wallops facility and Orbital officials suggest that the rocket could be seen from as far north as Portland, Maine, and as far south as Charleston, S.C., weather permitting. [Photos: Private Antares rocket poised for launch]

    NASA / Wallops Flight Facility

    Wondering if you will be able to view the Antares launch in person? The Wallops Mission Planning lab created this visibility map to help answer that question.

    "The best chance to see the flight extends from about Cape May, N.J., southward through the Outer Banks of North Carolina," Orbital officials explained in an update. "Also, if you happen to be in Bermuda, you will likely have a clear view of Antares as it rockets by."

    More than 100 reporters are expected to descend upon the NASA Wallops visitor's center on Wednesday, as well as a huge crowd of launch fans, center officials said. More onlookers are advised to watch the launch from the nearby Assateague Beach, NASA Wallops spokesman Keith Koehler told Space.com.

    "It's going to be a bright light in the sky," Koehler said.

    The rocket will lift off from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a commercial spaceport at the Wallops Flight Facility. The Wallops facility, established in 1945, is NASA's lead center for small suborbital rocket launches and balloon science missions.

    Orbital Sciences Corp.

    This map by Orbital Sciences Corp. shows the launch visibility possibilities for Orbital's Antares rocket on Wednesday.

    The two-stage Antares rocket is designed to launch Orbital's cylindrical unmanned cargo ship, called Cygnus, on at least eight delivery flights to the International Space Station under a $1.9 billion deal with NASA. Orbital is one of two companies with a NASA contract for space station cargo deliveries. The other is Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., which has launched one test flight and two cargo delivery missions to the station since 2012 under a separate $1.6 billion contract.

    For Orbital Sciences, Wednesday's launch is the first major flight test for the Antares rocket. The two-stage rocket is 131 feet (40 meters) tall and about 12.7 feet (3.9 m) wide and will launch toward the southeast out over the Atlantic Ocean during the 10-minute flight.

    The upcoming Antares test flight will not carry a Cygnus spacecraft. Instead, it will carry a mock payload, called a "mass simulator," to mimic a Cygnus vehicle, including three tiny satellites for NASA and one commercial nanosatellite.

    Orbital engineers replaced a faulty valve on the Antares rocket after it halted an engine test on Saturday. With the fix in place, Orbital officials and NASA are now tracking the weather for Wednesday's test.

    "There is a 45 percent chance of favorable weather at the time of launch," NASA officials said in a statement late Monday. "Low clouds are the primary concern for a weather violation."

    Visit Space.com for complete coverage of Wednesday's Antares rocket test flight.

    Editor's note: If you snap a great photo of Orbital's Antares rocket launch that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

    Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

    Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Excitement builds as Antares nears first liftoff

    Brea Reeves / NASA Wallops Flight Facility

    The sun rises over NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, where the first Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences stands poised to launch on its test flight at 5 p.m. Wednesday from Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

    By Tariq Malik
    Space.com

    It's almost show time for a new private rocket on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

    A commercially built rocket designed to launch unmanned cargo ships to the International Space Station is counting down toward its first-ever flight test this week from Wallops Island, Va., a small island that is home to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and a young commercial spaceport. Liftoff for the rocket, called Antares, is currently set for Wednesday at 5 p.m. EDT.

    "The team is beyond excited," Barron Berneski, spokesman for the Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corp. that built the Antares rocket, told Space.com in an email. [See photos of the Antares rocket test flight preparations]

    Berneski said Orbital Sciences engineers are currently working to replace a valve on the Antares rocket that thwarted an engine test firing on Saturday.

    "Late in the countdown, at about T-16 minutes, the test was halted because the launch team had detected a technical anomaly in the process," Berneski said of the valve glitch in a statement. "A replacement unit will be installed within 24 hours with the goal of maintaining the April 17 launch date."

    The upcoming Antares launch is the highest profile launch yet from the Wallops Flight Facility, which was founded in 1945 and currently serves as NASA's home for balloon science missions and small sounding rocket launches that don't reach all the way into orbit. It is located on the southern tip of Wallops Island, which it shares with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a staging ground for commercial rocket launches overseen by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.

    Orbital Sciences Corp. / NASA

    The COTS Demonstration Cygnus spacecraft completed a milestone when its Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) was attached to the Service Module (SM), and all mechanical flight connections were attached. This image was taken April 2.

    Orbital Sciences plans to launch at least eight Antares rockets from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, nicknamed MARS, to deliver tons of cargo to the International Space Station under a $1.9 billion deal with NASA set in 2008. The company is one of two private spaceflight firms with a commercial cargo delivery deal. The California-based SpaceX, which has flown three missions to the station since 2012, is the other and has a $1.6 billion contract to provide 12 NASA cargo flights.

    But unlike SpaceX, which launches its Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon space capsules toward the station from Cape Canaveral in Florida — a mainstay launching ground for American manned and unmanned spaceflight — Orbital Sciences picked the MARS site for Antares flights.

    "MARS has completed construction and testing operations on its launch complex at Wallops Island, the first all-new large-scale liquid-fuel launch site to be built in the U.S. in decades," Orbital Sciences Chief Executive Officer David Thompson said in October 2012 when the company took control of its launch pad at the site.

    Wednesday's Antares rocket launch will not carry a full-fledged Cygnus spacecraft when it blasts off. Since the mission is a test flight, it will carry a "mass simulator" designed to mimic the weight of a real cargo ship.

    Orbital Sciences has dubbed the mission Antares A-ONE and expects the rocket to reach a maximum altitude of between 155 miles and 185 miles (250 and 300 kilometers) above Earth. The mission may also carry a set of tiny satellites for NASA, according to previous mission descriptions.

    The Antares rocket is a two-stage booster designed to launch robotic cargo ships called Cygnus on one-way trips. The Cygnus spacecraft is a one-use vehicle and is designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere at the end of its mission instead of returning cargo to Earth like SpaceX's Dragon capsules.

    If all goes well, Orbital Sciences hopes to launch the first official Antares rocket and Cygnus flight toward the space station later this year.

    "There's still a lot of work to do ahead of the launch, but after nearly five years from concept design to actual launch, it feels great to be at the finish line of the R&D effort and at the starting line for our next big new product line, serving not just NASA cargo delivery, but other launch markets as well,' Berneski said.

    Visit Space.com for complete coverage of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket test this week.

    Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

    Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • A new rocket rises: Orbital's Antares prepared for its first test launch

    Brea Reeves / NASA

    Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket rises from its launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia's Wallops Island on Saturday. The first Antares launch is scheduled for no earlier than April 17.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


    Orbital Sciences Corp. raised the first fully integrated Antares rocket on its Virginia launch pad on Saturday, setting the stage for its maiden flight to orbit later this month. A successful test launch would mark a giant leap toward using the Antares and Orbital's Cygnus cargo capsule to resupply the International Space Station.

    If the current schedule holds, Virginia-based Orbital would become the second commercial venture to send its spacecraft to the space station later this year, following in the footsteps of California-based SpaceX. The two companies have received more than hundred of millions of dollars in development funding from NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS.

    SpaceX completed its COTS testing last year and has moved on to a series of 12 station resupply missions under the terms of a $1.6 billion contract. The second such mission, making use of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule, was successfully conducted last month.

    This month's demonstration flight by the Antares will mark a major milestone in Orbital's COTS effort: Components of the rocket have been tested on the ground, but not yet in outer space. On Saturday, the two-stage rocket was rolled out from its integration facility at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and transported to Launch Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a mile away. The Antares was then erected on the pad, where it will undergo a series of pre-launch tests.

    Brea Reeves / NASA

    The Antares rocket is reflected in the water as it passes over a bridge on its way to the launch pad on Saturday.

    Liftoff is scheduled for no earlier than April 17. The first flight won't go to the space station, but will merely test the rocket's ability to put a dummy payload in space.  A demonstration flight of the Antares and Cygnus is slated to go to the space station later this year. If that unmanned demonstration mission is completed successfully, Orbital will begin conducting eight cargo resupply flights to the station in accordance with a $1.9 billion contract.

    NASA selected SpaceX and Orbital to help fill the resupply gap left by the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011. The station is also being resupplied by robotic Russian cargo capsules as well as European and Japanese transports. A separate NASA program is providing $1.1 billion in support to SpaceX, the Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp. for the development of crew-capable spaceships.

    More about Orbital and Antares:

    For more pictures of Antares' rollout, check out the Wallops Flight Facility's Facebook page.

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Orbital test-fires engines on Antares rocket for future space station trips

    NASA

    Orbital Sciences Corp. lights up the engines on its Antares rocket for a hot-fire test at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia on Friday.

    By Tariq Malik
    Space.com

    Orbital Sciences Corp. has successfully tested the engines for a new private rocket designed to send cargo to the International Space Station.

    The Virginia-based company test-fired the first-stage engines of its new Antares rocket for 30 seconds Friday night at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, also based on the island, supported the so-called static fire engine test, which involved having the Antares rocket fire its engines without leaving the launch pad.

    "This pad test is an important reminder of how strong and diverse the commercial space industry is in our nation," Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement released after the test. "A little more than one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we had a U.S company resupplying the space station, and another is now taking the next critical steps to launch from America’s newest gateway to low-Earth orbit."

    Orbital Sciences is one of two private spaceflight companies with billion-dollar NASA contracts to provide unmanned cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station. Under its $1.9 billion contract, Orbital Sciences will make at least eight delivery flights to the space station using its Antares rocket and robotic Cygnus spacecraft. The first Antares rocket test flight is expected later this year. [Antares Rocket and Cygnus Explained (Infographic)]

    California-based SpaceX is the other company with a NASA contract for unmanned space station deliveries. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to fly at least 12 missions to the space station using its Dragon space capsules and Falcon 9 rocket. The company launched both a test flight and a bona fide delivery mission to the space station in 2012. The second delivery flight under the contract is slated to launch on March 1.

    An animation shows how Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Antares-Cygnus launch system would be used to resupply the International Space Station.

    With NASA's retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011, the space agency is relying on new private rockets and spacecraft to ferry cargo — and eventually astronauts — to and from low-Earth orbit. NASA is currently dependent on Russia, Europe and Japan for cargo deliveries to the space station. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft are the only vehicles currently available to ferry astronauts to and from the station.  

    Friday's engine test marked Orbital's second attempt to check the Antares rocket's dual AJ26 rocket engines, which are designed to provide 680,000 pounds of thrust. A first attempt on Feb. 13 was aborted before engine ignition due to a "low pressurization" detection during a nitrogen purge in the rocket's aft engine compartment, Orbital officials said.

    The test took place at Pad-0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, which is located on the eastern shore of Virginia. It set the stage for a full-up flight test of the Antares rocket, and then a demonstration flight as part of Orbital's contract under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, also known as COTS.

    "Following the successful completion of the COTS demonstration mission to the station, Orbital will begin regular cargo resupply flights to the orbiting laboratory through NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract," NASA Wallops officials said.

    This report was updated by NBC News Digital. You can follow Space.com managing editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow Space.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. 

    © 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.