Cygnus cargo ship blasts off for space station
- 11 years ago
ROUGH CUT -- NO REPORTER NARRATION
The 13-story rocket, developed by Orbital Sciences Corp., lifted off at 10:58 a.m. EDT from the state-owned Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island.
The two-stage booster, making its second flight, soared southeast over the Atlantic Ocean, leaving behind a pillar of smoke and flame visible from New York City to South Carolina as it headed into orbit.
Perched on top of the rocket was Orbital Sciences' new Cygnus freighter, one of two robotic spaceships developed in partnership with NASA to fly cargo to the space station following the space shuttles' retirement.
The capsule was expected to reach the space station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 250 miles above Earth, on Sunday.
Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, which began work about 18 months before Orbital Sciences, so far has made three trips to the station, a project of 15 nations.
NASA invested a total of $686 million in
The 13-story rocket, developed by Orbital Sciences Corp., lifted off at 10:58 a.m. EDT from the state-owned Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island.
The two-stage booster, making its second flight, soared southeast over the Atlantic Ocean, leaving behind a pillar of smoke and flame visible from New York City to South Carolina as it headed into orbit.
Perched on top of the rocket was Orbital Sciences' new Cygnus freighter, one of two robotic spaceships developed in partnership with NASA to fly cargo to the space station following the space shuttles' retirement.
The capsule was expected to reach the space station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 250 miles above Earth, on Sunday.
Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, which began work about 18 months before Orbital Sciences, so far has made three trips to the station, a project of 15 nations.
NASA invested a total of $686 million in