Ukraine’s latest foray into space is off the launch pad, with a rocket stage built in Dnipro propelling a cargo ship into orbit to resupply the International Space Station.
The Antares launch vehicle, manufactured by United States-based aerospace giant Northrop Grumman and Ukraine’s Yuzhoye design bureau, took off for the station late on April 17.
The rocket was carrying a Cygnus NG-11 cargo spacecraft with 3,447 kilograms of payload commissioned by NASA, mainly scientific instruments and equipment for extravehicular activity, computers and accessories. It also carried a number of miniaturized CubSat satellites, according to the Yuzhnoye’s press service.
The launch commenced at 4.46 p.m. EST time (11.46 p.m. Kyiv time) from the from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island in Virginia, the United States.
“During this mission, the technology of late-stage loading was applied for the first time,” the Yuzhnoye reported.
“Before that, the whole payload had to be loaded nearly four days prior to launch. Thanks to the new technology, time-sensitive scientific probes were embarked only 24 hours before launch.”
The cargo ship will dock with the space station on April 19.
The Yuzhnoye design bureau, located in the city of Dnipro some 300 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, designed the first of the three stages of the Antares launcher. As Yuzhnoye added, it is manufactured by the Yuzhmash plant in cooperation with several other enterprises across the country, particularly from Kyiv, Zaporizhia, and Chernihiv.
The Antares rocket was developed by the U.S.-based Orbital Sciences Corporation, later part of Northrop Grumman, as a single-use launch system able to carry payloads of over 5,000 kilograms into low-Earth orbit. Since April 2013, these launch vehicles have delivered various cargoes to the International Space Station under a NASA contract.
“As part of the Antares program, the Ukrainian party accomplished a complete package of work on designing and developing the manufacturing of the launch vehicle’s first stage core structure under the contract with NASA,” Yuzhnoye added.
Since 2013, the Antares family rockets have already seen 10 launches, nine of which were successful, according to the Ukrainian design bureau.
The new Antares mission will bring the last Cygnus NG-11 cargo craft to the International Space Station under Northrop Grumman’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. The program vehicles bear the name of S.S. Roger Chafee, in honor of the famous American pilot and NASA astronaut killed in a fire during a pre-launch test for the Apollo-1 mission in 1967.
Since 2014, Northrop Grumman has delivered 11 Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, seven of which have been launched by Antares. The latest launch, however, is the last one under the CRS contract — after the mission’s end, Northrop Grumman will continue delivering cargo under its CRS2 agreement with NASA, which will act through at least 2024.
