Gallery: Antares rocket explodes

NASA has put off selecting the winners in a new competition for deals to resupply the International Space Station, prompting the agency to order two more commercial resupply missions from Orbital ATK to satisfy the orbiting lab’s cargo needs into early 2018, bringing the company’s total contract to 10 logistics flights.

Powered by two Russian-made RD-181 main engines, a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket fired into a mostly sunny sky Saturday afternoon over Virginia’s Eastern Shore carrying nearly 7,500 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station.

This is the post-launch news briefing from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility held after the successful return to flight by the Orbital ATK Antares rocket that delivered the Cygnus cargo ship into space.