NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

CRS OA-8E

Launch Time
Sun Nov 12, 2017 12:19 UTC

Rocket

Antares 230
Image Credit: NASA
Northrop
Status: Retired
Price: $85.0 million
Liftoff Thrust: 3,844 kN
Payload to LEO: 7,000 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 0
Rocket Height: 41.9 m
Fairing Diameter: 3.9 m
Fairing Height: 9.9 m

Mission Details

Cygnus OA-8E

Cygnus OA-8E (Orbital ATK-8E) 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-8E was captured by RMS on 14/11/2017 at 10:04 UTC and berthed to the Nadir port of the Unity module of the International Space Station on 14/11/2017 at 12:15 UTC. Its stay on the ISS was 21 days. It was unberthed on 05/12/2017 at 17:52 UTC and released by RMS on 06/12/2017 at 13:11 UTC. It deorbited on 18/12/2017 at 12:54 UTC.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 3,338.0 kg
Low Earth Orbit

Location

LP-0A, Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Stats

2017

75th orbital launch attempt

Antares

7th mission
1st mission of 2017
6th successful mission
2nd consecutive successful mission