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" With the successful launch Sunday evening of the Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket carrying a simulated version of the Cygnus supply vehicle for the International Space Station, NASA took another step toward turning over low Earth orbit to commercial launch companies. After a launch that was scrubbed on Wednesday when a data cable connected to the second stage unplugged prematurely and subsequent weather delays, evening&amp;#039;s launch went off without a hitch. Orbital may be a new name to those who have been following the progress of Space Exploration (SpaceX) and its outspoken CEO Elon Musk. But the company has been around since 1982 and has delivered more than a thousand satellites, launch vehicles, and space-related systems since that time. Antares is Orbital&amp;#039;s heaviest lift rocket, with an orbital capacity of 11,000 pounds, which the company plans to increase to more than 14,000 pounds someday. Orbital hopes to use the larger Antares rocket and Cygnus supply vehicle to join SpaceX in sending cargo into orbit for NASA (though Cygnus is not reusable and Orbital does not plan to carry astronauts). Antares blasted off from the Wallops Island, Va. spaceport (which is actually the oldest launch facility in the U.S., having fired its first rocket on the Fourth of July, 1945). The rocket&amp;#039;s first stage burns for four minutes, carrying the Antares to an altitude of 70 miles before depleting its fuel supply. After dropping the burned-out first stage, the rocket coasts for another 93 seconds before lighting the second stage&amp;#039;s solid rocket, which burns for another two minutes, carrying the dummy payload to its destination orbit. With the successful conclusion of this test mission, Orbital is contracted to launch eight Cygnus transports to the ISS by 2016. John Steinmeyer, senior project manager for Orbital, told NASA TV the first delivery mission is slated for late June, depending on the station&amp;#039;s schedule. Cygnus comprises a service module, with its own power, and propulsion and navigation systems, plus a pressurized cargo compartment for transporting supplies. Orbital builds the service module at its Dulles, Va. headquarters, while the pressurized module is built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy. The two parts are assembled and the service module is fueled at Wallops before being mounted atop an Antares rocket. Orbital has already delivered a completed Cygnus to Wallops for installation on the Antares rocket that will carry it on a real mission to the ISS. Orbital has a history of creative solutions to reaching orbit. The company started with its Pegasus rocket, the first privately developed commercial launch vehicle, in 1990. That rocket launches from a Lockheed L-1011 jumbo jet, looking a bit like a cruise missile as it carries payloads of as much as 1000 pounds to low Earth orbit. The company followed up with the Taurus, a ground-launched version of the Pegasus, and the Minotaur, which is based on repurposed Minuteman ICMB solid rocket motors. The big rocket, the Antares, is a conglomeration of longstanding rocket technologies. It features a liquid-fueled first stage based on the old Soviet Zenit rocket topped by a Castor 30 solid-fueled second stage provided by ATK, the contractor that built the space shuttle solid rocket boosters. That first stage features a pair of Aerojet AJ26 liquid-fueled engines, which are really repurposed Soviet NK-33 engines built for the N-1 moon rocket, that burn liquid oxygen and kerosene. The first stage also uses a Zenit-derived fuel tank designed by Russian supplier KB Yuzhnoye and manufactured by Yushmash. Orbital integrates all the systems and coordinates them with its own Modular Avionics Control Hardware system. For this test, Antares not only carried the dummy Cygnus payload module into an elliptical orbit of 155 by 186 miles, but also put a quartet of &amp;quot;phone sats&amp;quot; into orbit. They are tiny cube-shaped satellites that use a mobile phone as their on-board computer. Orbital already does a strong business launching satellites; with this weekend&amp;#039;s success, the Cygnus is well on its way to the ISS, too. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a8865/orbital-test-launch-a-success-next-stop-iss-15379735/>