Antares Launch Postponed to Oct. 28

The next launch attempt for Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket carrying its Cygnus cargo spacecraft is scheduled for 6:22 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Oct. 28 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. There is a 10 minute launch window. Live coverage on NASA TV will begin at 5:30 p.m. EDT.

Monday’s launch attempt was scrubbed because of a boat down range in the trajectory Antares would have flown had it lifted off.

At last report, the weather forecast for Oct. 28 was 95-percent favorable.

Arrival of the Cygnus spacecraft at the International Space Station would occur Nov. 2.

› Related images on Flickr
› How to View the CRS-3 Launch
› NASA’s Orbital website

25 thoughts on “Antares Launch Postponed to Oct. 28”

  2. When will the launch be rescheduled for? Or when will a reschedule date be announced?! Also, most annoying boat ever.

  5. We were very disappointed about the scrubbed launch. Did we hear right that they were going to try again tomorrow about a half hour earlier?

  7. This seems to be a repetitive problem. I recall one other launch where a boat was down range from the launch site putting the launch on hold.

    I assume there is a limit to this “danger” area where no boat should be. Eventually the craft will have dropped its initials stages, be high enough, fast enough, to ultimately be in orbit and thus the reduced danger of impacting a boat in the water down range.

    How many miles down range is this limit, or border of the danger area? Is there a means to patrol this area in advance to keep boats out? Well in advance the direction of a boat can be calculated and projected to be able to tell if a boat is going to be in this danger area or not. What can this not be done? Someone is feeding the range data o whether the rage is “red” or “green”, they must have the radar to be able to do this.

    Lou

  10. The Coast Guard should just have gone out and sunk it. After all, the tourist would have gotten what he wanted by parking downrange… Why do you think they called it “Wallops Island”, anyway? Because if you’re dumb enough to ignore the notification that was posted over a week ago, you deserve to get walloped by a used first stage.

    1. It is possible you saw the International Space Station, which passed over the area shortly before 7 p.m. EDT (Oct. 27).

    2. I was wondering the same thing… I was watching the NE (didn’t hear of the reschedule) and about 5 mins past due, I’m almost certain I saw a rocket exactly where it was supposed to be. I even spotted with astronomy binoculars. Anyone else?

    1. Depending on weather and other conditions, it may be possible to see the Antares launch from Philadelphia.

  15. Hallo. I discovered your site only recently, so maybe you’ve already answered to my question. Is it possible to have a graphic display of the steps Cygnus has to accomplish from earth to ISS? From oct 28 to nov 2 it’s a long trip, which means the journey is much more complicated than people imagine. Thanks in advance.

  17. if launch was scrubbed, what the hell did I see fly over my house at the same time?!!!!!

    1. It is possible you saw the International Space Station, which passed over the area shortly before 7 p.m. EDT (Oct. 27).

  18. I’m 51 miles NW of Wallops, want to do a time lapse. Any guesses what interval I should set? I see max elevation from here will be about 20°. How much time to that elev? Maybe 2 minutes? So maybe one shot every 5 seconds? Any inputs appreciated!

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