Orbital poised to launch cargo ship to space station
Source: Agence France-Presse
Orbital poised to launch cargo ship to space station
13 Jul 2014
Orbital Sciences Corporation is poised to launch on Sunday its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship packed with more than 3,000 pounds of supplies for astronauts at the International Space Station.
The liftoff is scheduled for 12:52 pm (1652 GMT) aboard an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia.
The mission, named Orb-2, is the second official trip for Orbital's cargo carrier, and is one of eight journeys the company has contracted with NASA.
Orb-2 was initially supposed to launch in May, but a Russian-built rocket engine in the Antares rocket failed during a prelaunch test, delaying the mission.
Cygnus will carry some 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilos) of cargo to the station, including food and supplies for the crew, scientific experiments, and a pump for the Japanese module to replace one that failed.
If launch goes as planned, the Cygnus should arrive at the orbiting outpost on Wednesday, July 16.
Read more: http://www.afp.com/en/news/orbital-poised-launch-cargo-ship-space-station
= new reply since forum marked as read
A good deal of what was formerly government run space exploration is now in private hands. They are bypassing government and taking direct control. They GOP voted for NASA funding this year as I noted on this thread:
League City (TX) bans undocumented children
Congressman Randy Weber
Representing the 14th District of Texas
Weber Acts to Stopgap Illegal Entry to United States.
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Randy Weber (R-Friendswood) today introduced H.R. 5014, the Illegal Entry Accountability Act of 2014. The legislation would hold Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador accountable for illegal immigration by immediately suspending all U.S...
Bless his little heart.
Rep. Weber speaks on the House floor in favor of the NASA Reauthorization bill.
This is where we saw a local Tea Partier who worked at NASA cheering last year's federal government shutdown and calling for default. Because they know they won't be effected. In fact, they want more funding for themselves and don't care who dies. Nice bunch, a far cry from the people who worked for NASA back in the day of the moon landing.
U.S. Representative Randy Weber has been named as a recipient of the 2014 Thomas Jefferson Award by the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA).
I'm sure Jefferson is barfing off a cloud somewhere at this alleged honor. Read more:
http://weber.house.gov/
The 14th is Ron Paul's old district:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_14th_congressional_district
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014842196#post7
America still surpasses all other nations combined funding space exploration at $17.3 billion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration#Space_agencies
The GOP votes to pay for increasingly private space exploration ventures that employ their voting block, most likely, like the guy who worked at NASA and wanted the shutdown and default last year. He knew that he would be paid by someone else if need be.
Examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX
Current NASA (USA) space programs include:
# Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA)
# Mars Exploration Rover (NASA)
# MESSENGER – NASA probe to Mercury launched in 2004
# Mars Science Laboratory – NASA rover to Mars launched in November 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration#Active_space_missions
Russia has also privatized:
Soviet and Russian space station Mir
Russian achievements in the field of space technology and space exploration are traced back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father of theoretical astronautics.[214] His works had inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers, such as Sergey Korolyov, Valentin Glushko, and many others who contributed to the success of the Soviet space program on early stages of the Space Race and beyond.
In 1957 the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched; in 1961 the first human trip into space was successfully made by Yury Gagarin. Many other Soviet and Russian space exploration records ensued, including the first spacewalk performed by Alexey Leonov, Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to land on the Moon, Venera 7 was the first to land on another planet (Venus), Mars 3 then the first to land on Mars, the first space exploration rover Lunokhod 1 and the first space station Salyut 1 and Mir.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some government-funded space exploration programs, including the Buran space shuttle program, were cancelled or delayed, while participation of the Russian space industry in commercial activities and international cooperation intensified.
Nowadays Russia is the largest satellite launcher.[215] After the U.S. Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, Soyuz rockets became the only provider of transport for astronauts at the International Space Station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#Space_exploration
Space technology is now owned privately and that is why we are not being told about it, except in news blurbs for financial support. So while it's great stuff, it's not JFK's ideal:
Astronaut Dale A. Gardner holding a "For Sale" sign
Private spaceflight is flight beyond the Kármán line (above the nominal edge of space at 100 km (62 mi) Earth altitude) that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency.
In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design bureaus in the USSR and private companies in the US. The European Space Agency was formed in 1975, largely following the same model of space technology development.
Later on, large defense contractors began to develop and operate space launch systems, derived from government rockets and commercial satellites. Private spaceflight in Earth orbit includes communications satellites, satellite television, satellite radio, astronaut transport and sub-orbital and orbital space tourism.
Recently, entrepreneurs have begun designing and deploying competitive space systems to the national-monopoly governmental systems[1] of the early decades of the space age.[2] Successes to date include flying suborbital spaceplanes, launching orbital rockets, and flying a couple of orbital expandable test modules (Genesis I and II). Planned private spaceflights beyond Earth orbit include personal spaceflights around the Moon.[citation needed] Two private orbital habitat prototypes are already in Earth orbit, with larger versions to follow.[3] Planned private spaceflights beyond Earth orbit include solar sailing prototypes (LightSail-3).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_spaceflight
Anyway, with the amount of pork the space program brings to southern states, such as Alabama and Texas, I think you might find that stuff interesting. My guess is the ultra wealthy have promised the pubbies a few special perks for their votes.
Just sayin'
That'll give me just enough time to eat something as I watch.
Can't wait until SpaceX gets their launchpad built here (McAllen, I think.) That'll be fun to watch, and maybe even in person 
The cloud cover looked pretty thick from the online video.
I've never watched their launches, so was that slight wobble in the first few seconds normal? It looked like it moved up and then sideways a bit before finally getting up into the air. I was worried when I saw that movement 
It was an exciting launch, even if "just" unmanned. I haven't seen anything from NASA in years. I hope that we can someday turn that around.
I'm not an engineer either. I guess I'm only used to seeing NASA launches and the only sideways movement I've ever witnessed was from the angled shuttle engines after the solid boosters kicked in. This looked wobbly and hesitant. I know some technology geeks that work for NASA. Maybe I can find the ones that would know more about that 
