14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), in Virginia, announce that the Antares rocket scheduled to launch on Thursday, December 19, has been rolled to its launch pad at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, on Wallops Island, Virginia.
The image above, taken on Tuesday, December 16, shows the Antares delivery system on its way to the launch facility. Its payload fairing contains the OSC Cygnus spacecraft, the second private space capsule the company built under a contract with NASA.
Once Antares injects it into low-Earth orbit, the spacecraft will head to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will deliver supplies, personal items, fuel, water and scientific experiments to the six crew members of Expedition 38. This will be Cygnus' second flight, following its maiden voyage earlier this year.
The planned launch date may be subject to change, as NASA engineers are trying to deal with a failed cooling loop aboard the orbital lab. Depending on how the issue is addressed, Cygnus may or may not launch two days from now, officials at the American space agency announce.