14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) announce that NASA has decided to add their Antares delivery system (which was formerly known as the Taurus II) to its list of options.
This means that the Antares will be considered as a potential carrier rocket for future NASA satellites alongside other vehicles by competing companies. Antares is scheduled to have its maiden flight this August, and was developed especially to carry the OSC Cygnus spacecraft.
The new agreement was made official through the signing of a NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract. The document features an ordering period spanning through June 2020, and does not specify any delivery dates or quantities.
Minimum requirements for rockets that seek to obtain NLS II qualification include being able to insert payloads weighing around 250 kilograms (550-pound) into a circular orbit at least 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Earth's surface.