The next launch of the Antares middle-class launch vehicle produced in in Ukraine under the NASA contract for the provision of commercial supply services (CRS) to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for Nov. 15.
The NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport are set to support the launch of the Antares rocket, carrying the company’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station at 4:49 a.m. EST.
This launch will be the tenth. The previous launch was in May 2018.
In June, the American partner of Ukraine in the project, American Orbital ATK, the former largest American supplier of aerospace and defense equipment, was officially transformed into a new division of the American defense corporation Northrop Grumman Corp. – Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. Earlier, in September 2017, Northrop Grumman Corp. announced the acquisition of Orbital ATK for $7.8 billion.
Ukraine has been cooperating with the U.S.A. on the Antares project since 2008. The basic structure of the first phase of the Antares rocket was designed by Pivdenne Design Bureau and made by Pivdenmash (both based in Dnipro). Ukraine’s Hartron-Arkos, Hartron-Ucom, Chezara (Chernihiv Plant of Radio Equipment), and Rapid are also involved in cooperation on the project.
