Northrop Grumman launched a cargo spaceship Wednesday afternoon from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility filled with supplies and science bound for the International Space Station.
The Antares rocket launched with the Cygnus cargo capsule loaded with 7,600 pounds of supplies at 4:46 p.m. into a clear sky above Wallops Island, Virginia. Air Force weather officials were predicting perfect conditions at liftoff.
According to NASA, the launch may have been visible, depending on the weather conditions, to people outside of the Virginia area possibly as far as throughout the mid-Atlantic region and the U.S. east coast.
Cygnus is packed with research, supplies for the astronauts and hardware for the space station, including three free-flying, cube-shaped autonomous robots.
The small bots, known as Astrobee free flyers, will become helpers to the astronauts living on the space station freeing up their time for important science and engineering tasks.
Because Cygnus will arrive ahead of the Easter holiday NASA says among the 800 meals for the six residents they are also sending some special holiday treats, including smoked turkey, pork chops and cobbler.
The Cygnus spacecraft is named S.S. Roger Chaffee after one of three American astronauts who died in 1967 during the Apollo 1 preflight test at Cape Canaveral. Astronauts Gus Grissom and Ed White were also killed in the fire, which grounded the space program for 18 months but led to critical safety improvements.
On Friday morning, NASA astronaut Anne McClain will grab the capsule using the station’s robotic arm. The astronauts will open the hatch around 7 a.m.
Next week, SpaceX is set to launch more supplies to the space station.
Falcon 9 and the Dragon cargo capsule will liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA says the launch is targeted for a 5:55 a.m. lift off on April 26.