Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
23:45:00
Monday October 17, 2016
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First launch of Enhanced Cygnus on Orbital's new Antares 230. Return to launch of Antares after the CRS Orb-3 failure. First flight of the RD-181s engines.
Cygnus OA-5 (Orbital ATK-5) is a cargo resupply mission of the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. Northrop Grumman (formerly Orbital ATK) and NASA jointly developed a new space transportation system to provide commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station. The Cygnus cargo ship consists of two parts, a service module built in the USA based on the GEOStar platform, and a pressurized module, manufactured in France and Italy by Thales Alenia. The cargo is sent into orbit by a launcher specially developed for this purpose. Antares has a first stage based on Energiya lateral blocks, made in Ukraine by Yuzhnoye. It was initially powered by two NK-33s, built in the 1960s for the Soviet N1 lunar launcher, before being replaced by RD-181s, derived from the RD-170s installed on Energiya and Zenit. The second stage, a Castor-30, is made in the USA, by Northrop Grumman. CRS OA-5 was captured by RMS on 23/10/2016 at 11:28 UTC and berthed to the Nadir port of the Unity module of the International Space Station on 23/10/2016 at 14:53 UTC. Its stay on the ISS was 28 days. It was unberthed on 21/11/2016 at 11:25 UTC and released by RMS on 21/11/2016 at 13:22 UTC. It deorbited on 27/11/2016 at 23:36 UTC.
Low Earth Orbit
1 Payload
2,425 kilograms
Agency
NorthropPrice
$85.00 million
Rocket
Diameter: 3.9m
Height: 41.9m
Payload to Orbit
LEO: 7,000 kg
Liftoff Thrust
3,844 Kilonewtons
Fairing
Diameter: 3.9m
Height: 9.9m
Stages
2
6th
Mission
1st
Mission of 2016
63rd
Orbital launch attempt