CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station received its first shipment from Virginia in more than two years Sunday following a sensational nighttime launch observed 250 miles up and down the East Coast.
Orbital ATK’s cargo ship pulled up at the space station bearing 5,000 pounds of food, equipment and research.
“What a beautiful vehicle,” said Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, who used the station’s big robot arm to grab the vessel. The capture occurred as the spacecraft soared 250 miles above Kyrgyzstan; Onishi likened it to the last 195 meters of a marathon.
Last Monday’s liftoff from Wallops Island was the first by an Antares rocket since a 2014 launch explosion. Orbital ATK redesigned its Antares rocket and rebuilt the pad. While the Antares was grounded, Virginia-based Orbital ATK kept the NASA supply chain open with deliveries from Cape Canaveral, Florida, using another company’s rocket.
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4 comments:
Nice work, NASA!
Not NASA. It's Orbital ATK.
Without NASA it wouldn't be up there now.
Nasa is defunct. If NASA still was around there would not be Orbital ATK. Even our guys ride to ISS on Russian rockets.
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