The latest weather forecast stands at 95% favorable for the scheduled launch Sunday, Feb. 9 of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. As of this time, cumulus clouds and thick clouds are the primary weather concerns being tracked for a launch attempt at 5:39 p.m. EST Sunday.
Northrop Grumman’s 13th contracted commercial resupply mission with NASA will send the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station to deliver approximately 8,000 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew.
Blustery conditions will continue today as a deep area of low pressure continues to move off to our northeast. Winds will subside overnight tonight, providing for a calm, uneventful Saturday. A weak upper level shortwave trough will then move across the Mid-Atlantic Saturday night, producing an uptick in cloudiness into early Sunday morning. High pressure will build back into the local area by Sunday afternoon, leading to another seasonable day under partly cloudy skies. Clouds begin to increase in the mid and upper- levels Sunday evening as another cold front approaches the region.
Follow launch activities at the launch blog and @NASA_Wallops and learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.