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Officials target mid-October for first launch of upgraded Antares cargo rocket
Orbital ATK ground crews in Virginia are fueling the next Cygnus cargo freighter this week for launch toward the International Space Station in mid-October on the first flight of the company's upgraded Antares rocket in two years.
Station cargo ship delays clear way for needed spacewalk
The Japanese space agency has delayed the planned Sept. 30 launch of an HTV space station cargo ship to repair a leak in the vehicle, clearing the way for Orbital ATK to slip the launch of its Cygnus supply ship from Aug. 22 to the second half of September to complete tests and analysis of its re-engined Antares rocket, officials said Wednesday.
Antares rocket’s return-to-flight slips to August
The first launch of Orbital ATK's redesigned Antares rocket since an engine failure doomed a mission in 2014 will likely be delayed more than one month until August to complete analysis of data acquired during a first stage hotfire test, officials said.
VideoRe-engined Antares rocket completes ground test firing
Orbital ATK's upgraded Antares rocket, featuring newly-built RD-181 main engines, completed a 30-second test firing on a launch pad on Virginia's Eastern Shore on Tuesday.
Upgraded Antares rolls out to launch pad for tests
An Antares booster emerged from its hangar on Virginia's Eastern Shore and rolled out to its launch pad Thursday for the first time since a rocket failure grounded Orbital ATK's cargo launcher in 2014.
Key return to flight milestone looms for Antares rocket
Targeting a resumption of Antares cargo launches to the International Space Station as soon as July, Orbital ATK plans to roll out an upgraded Antares rocket to a launch pad in Virginia this week for a 30-second firing of the booster's new engines.
Q&A with Kurt Eberly, Orbital ATK’s Antares deputy program manager
Kurt Eberly, who helps lead the Antares rocket program at Orbital ATK, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the launcher's return-to-flight with newly-built engines later this year.
NASA quietly posts images of explosive Antares failure
Less than a week after publishing the results of an independent investigation into last year's Antares rocket failure, NASA has released new photos of the catastrophic crash just after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia.
Two Antares failure probes produce different results
An Orbital ATK investigation into last year's Antares rocket crash in Virginia identified a decades-old manufacturing defect inside an AJ26 engine turbopump as the most likely cause of the failure, but a team of NASA engineers was not so sure in their report.
One year after Antares failure, Orbital ATK nears return to flight
A year after a launch mishap left Orbital ATK's Cygnus supply ship without a ride to the International Space Station, company officials say the cargo delivery system is on the verge of a comeback, thanks to deals with United Launch Alliance and a decision to redesign its Antares booster with new rocket engines.