Video: Antares rocket explodes

Space station resupply missions launched from Virginia are set to resume in March 2016, after Orbital ATK integrates newly-built rocket engines into the Ukrainian-made booster stage of the company’s commercial Antares rocket and puts it through an on-pad test firing in January.

With investigators zeroing in on a decades-old rocket engine as the cause of a catastrophic launch mishap, Orbital Sciences officials said the company plans to use other launchers to send cargo to the International Space Station while modifying its Antares rocket with a new propulsion system.

A commercial Cygnus supply freighter will transport a motley mix of experiments to the International Space Station, helping scientists engaged in a range of research disciplines from studying the birth of the solar system to helping astronauts survive marathon missions in space.