Orbital Sciences Corporation : ORBITAL SET TO LAUNCH COTS DEMONSTRATION MISSION TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TOMORROW
September 17 2013 - 11:11AM
ORBITAL SET
TO LAUNCH COTS DEMONSTRATION MISSION TO
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
TOMORROW
-- Upcoming
Mission Represents Final Milestone in the Development of Antares
Launch Vehicle and Cygnus Cargo Logistics Spacecraft
--
(Dulles, VA 17 September
2013) - Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the
world's leading space technology companies, today announced it is
prepared to launch its Antares rocket carrying the company's new
Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS)
tomorrow morning. The launch is currently planned to take
place on Wednesday, September 18, with lift-off scheduled at 10:50
a.m. (EDT) from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, VA. Antares
will launch Cygnus into a targeted orbit of 245 x 300 kilometers,
inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator. Following in-orbit
activation shortly after launch, Cygnus will carry out a series of
tests and maneuvers over a four-day period to demonstrate its
readiness to rendezvous and berth with the station, now planned for
Sunday, September 22.
"Antares is the largest and most
complex rocket Orbital has ever produced," said Mr. David W.
Thompson, Orbital's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"After its flawless inaugural flight in April, we have been
actively preparing for this next critical, much-anticipated
milestone. Likewise, Cygnus is one of the most sophisticated
spacecraft Orbital has developed and built. As an integral
part of the Space Station program, it meets NASA's requirements for
a human-rated level of safety. Our engineering and operations
teams are very excited to be on the threshold of launching and
conducting this mission, which they have been working toward for
the last five years."
The goal of the mission is to
demonstrate the capability of Orbital's cargo transportation system
to reliably deliver cargo to the ISS, which will lead to regularly
scheduled missions beginning as early as December. This
demonstration flight is the final milestone in Orbital's Commercial
Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) joint research and
development initiative with NASA. Under the COTS program,
which began in 2008, NASA and Orbital developed Cygnus, which meets
the stringent human-rated safety requirements for ISS operations.
Orbital also privately developed the Antares launch vehicle
to provide low-cost, reliable access to space for medium-class
payloads. Together, these elements are being used for the COTS
flight demonstration of Orbital's commercial cargo supply
capability to the ISS.
Pending the successful completion
of the COTS program, Orbital will begin regularly scheduled cargo
delivery missions to the ISS under its $1.9 billion Commercial
Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. Under the CRS
contract, Orbital will deliver approximately 20,000 kilograms of
net cargo to the ISS over eight missions through 2016. For
these missions, NASA will manifest a variety of essential items
based on ISS program needs, including food, clothing, crew
supplies, spare parts and equipment, and scientific
experiments.
About
Antares
The Antares medium-class launch vehicle will provide a major
increase in the payload launch capability that Orbital can provide
to NASA, the U.S. Air Force and commercial customers. The
Antares rocket will launch spacecraft weighing up to 14,000 lbs.
into low-Earth orbit, as well as lighter-weight payloads into
higher-energy orbits. Orbital's newest launcher is currently
on-ramped to both the NASA Launch Services-2 and the U.S. Air
Force's Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contracts, enabling the two
largest U.S. government space launch customers to order Antares for
"right-size and right-price" launch services for medium-class
spacecraft. For more information on Antares, visit
http://www.orbital.com/SpaceLaunch/Antares/.
About Cygnus
Orbital developed the Cygnus cargo spacecraft as part of its COTS
joint research and development initiative with NASA. Cygnus
consists of a common Service Module (SM) and a Pressurized Cargo
Module (PCM). The SM incorporates avionics, power and
propulsion systems already successfully flown aboard dozens of
Orbital's LEOStar(TM) and GEOStar(TM) satellite products. The
PCM, designed and built by Thales Alenia Space under a subcontract
from Orbital, is based on the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM)
used with the Space Shuttle. For more information on Cygnus,
visit
http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/Publications/Cygnus_fact.pdf
About
Orbital
Orbital develops and manufactures small- and medium-class rockets
and space systems for commercial, military and civil government
customers. The company's primary products are satellites and launch
vehicles, including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous-Earth orbit and
planetary exploration spacecraft for communications, remote
sensing, scientific and defense missions; human-rated space systems
for Earth-orbit, lunar and other missions; ground- and air-launched
rockets that deliver satellites into orbit; and missile defense
systems that are used as interceptor and target vehicles. Orbital
also provides satellite subsystems and space-related technical
services to U.S. Government agencies and laboratories. More
information about Orbital can be found at http://www.orbital.com.
Follow the company on Twitter @OrbitalSciences.
# # #
Contact:
Barron Beneski (703) 406-5528
Public and Investor Relations
Orbital Sciences Corporation
Beneski.barron@orbital.com
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Source: Orbital Sciences Corporation via Thomson Reuters
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