Antares Rocket Is Successfully Launched

The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket successfully blasted off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the National Aeronuatics & Space Administration’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia today [Apr. 21] and could be seen from Bermuda as it streaked south over the Atlantic.

Two earlier attempts to launch the 131-foot tall rocket were scrubbed on Wednesday and Saturday.

Last week officials at Dulles-based Orbital Sciences announced that Bermuda “will likely have a clear view of Antares as it rockets by.”

The test launch marked the first flight of the privately-built Antares which delivered the equivalent mass of a spacecraft designed to take supplies to the International Space Station into Earth’s orbit. The primary payload was called the Cygnus Mass Simulator [CMS], a vehicle intended to mimic the mass of a Cygnus spacecraft.

During its ascent, Antares was tracked by NASA’s small Bermuda facility as well as tracking stations at Wallops Island, Coquina and Antigua.

Wallops Island provided visual tracking during the early stages of flight, as well as radar tracking, command uplink and telemetry downlink. Coquina and Bermuda provided radar tracking, telemetry downlink and command uplink, while Antigua only provided downlink.

The next Antares flight — which could occur as early as June — will deliver supplies to the International Space Station. That would make Orbital the second private company after California’s SpaceX to dock with the space station.

NASA video of today’s Antares rocket launch

– Photograph courtesy of NASA/Bill Ingalls

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