Updates Orbital Sciences' Cygnus CRS Flight 1 through Flight 8 updates.

[Kyle]

Mission: Cygnus CRS OA-4

Launch date: NET December 3rd, 2015

Launch window: 22:55-23:25 UTC (5:55 PM EST to 6:25 PM EST)

Launch site: Space Launch Complex-41, Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida.

Payload: TBD

SOURCE OF ARTICLE:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Deleted.

 

[Kyle]

Thread update to reflect new launch time.

 

[orb]

Twitter: @OrbitalSciences:

Culbertson says the next #Cygnus to be named after C. Gordon Fullerton. Astronaut and the pilot on the NASA B-52 for early #Pegasus missions

 

[orb]

Twitter: @OrbitalSciences:

@OrbitalSciences and @NASA have identified December 17, 2013 as the target launch date for Orbital's first ISS commericial resupply mission

 

[Kyle]

Seeing a launch window at 10:07pm EST (0307 GMT).

 

[Kyle]

Thread updated to reflect patch and new launch time.

 

[Urwumpe]

Damn, one day before my current project at works ends and the holidays start....

 

[Kyle]

@OrbitalSciences
@NASA investigating #ISS cooling issue. Our #Antares and #Cygnus teams to keep marching toward 12/18 #Orb1 launch date unless told otherwise

 

[RGClark]

Orbital Sciences launch Wednesday, Dec. 18th to be visible along much of East Coast, including the Liberty town (that's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for those outside the U.S.)

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Orb-1/LaunchViewingMaps/index.shtml

View from Philadelphia:

Bob Clark

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Due to the thermal control system issue on the ISS the launch has slipped to December 19, pending resolution of the problem. If however a decision is made to execute EVAs for replacing the pump module then the launch will most probably slip into January.

 

[Kyle]

NASA has decided to press ahead with the EVAs this week, delaying ORB-1 to January.

 

[Urwumpe]

NASA has decided to press ahead with the EVAs this week, delaying ORB-1 to January.

 

[Kyle]

Looking at a NET January 13th date.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Looking at a NET January 13th date.

And already being moved back up to January 7!

NASA and Orbital have established a new "no earlier than" (NET) launch date of Tuesday, Jan. 7, for the Orbital-1 CRS cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. A launch on Jan. 7 within the targeted window of 1:55 to 2:00 p.m. EST would result in a grapple and berthing at the space station in the early morning hours of Jan. 10. The launch date will continue to be evaluated as NASA proceeds with three upcoming spacewalks by the Expedition 38 crew to replace a cooling pump aboard the orbiting complex.

Following the postponement of the originally targeted Dec. 19 launch, Orbital's Antares team rolled the rocket off the launch pad and back to the Horizontal Integration Facility yesterday at Wallops. The time sensitive payloads that were on Cygnus are being removed today. They will be "refreshed" by the payload provider and returned for reloading into Cygnus. That operation would take place on Jan. 3. Rollout to the launch pad would occur on Jan. 4 to meet a Jan. 7 launch.

A conflict with a previously scheduled operation on the Wallops range has been resolved to allow the Antares launch to be proceed earlier than was originally thought possible after the decision was made to postpone the Dec. 19 launch attempt.

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Orb-1/MissionUpdate/index.shtml

 

[dehat42]

Has anyone here been to Wallops? And if so were you at the LADEE launch?

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

The launch has now slipped by 24 hours due to forecasted weather at Wallops next week. Allow me to quote Orbital's Cygnus update page:

January 3, 2014

Orbital, in consultation with NASA, has decided to reschedule the Antares CRS Orb-1 Space Station Resupply Mission launch for no earlier than Wednesday, January 8, 2014. The new target date was set due to the extreme cold temperatures that are forecasted for early next week, coupled with likely precipitation events predicted for Sunday night and Monday morning. While we are preserving the option to launch on January 8, it is more likely that the launch will take place on Thursday, January 9 because of a much improved weather forecast for later in the week.

The launch window on Wednesday is 1:32 - 1:37 pm EST (18:32 - 18:37 GMT). If weather conditions on Wednesday do not prove favorable, the launch window for Thursday, January 9 is 1:10 - 1:15 pm EST (18:10 - 18:15 GMT).

Rollout of the rocket to the pad will occur as previously scheduled tomorrow night, January 4, due to the relatively favorable weather, and the fact that the cargo has already been loaded onto the Cygnus. The team will execute on-pad preparations (mating the rocket to the pad, rotating the rocket to its vertical position, connecting umbilicals, etc.) immediately after rollout.

The Launch Readiness Review is currently scheduled to take place on Monday January 6. If the launch occurs on either Wednesday, January 8 or Thursday, January 9, Cygnus rendezvous and berthing with the space station will occur early in the morning of Sunday, January 12.

 

[Spicer]

Wallops/Ladee

Has anyone here been to Wallops? And if so were you at the LADEE launch?

I was not there, but saw Ladee from my back yard in S. Jersey!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Rocket now back on the launch pad:

 

[Alexrey]

Does anyone know if there's going to be a livestream of the launch?