Photo: NASA // Bill Ingalls
Northrop Grumman is planning to launch their Antares rocket on November 2nd on a mission to supply the International Space Station with supplies and science experiments. Antares will launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia at 9:59am ET. This will be the twelfth time Cygnus has been launched to resupply the space station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
Cygnus is carrying a various amount of science experiments for the astronauts aboard the ISS to conduct during their stay. One of these experiments is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to search for evidence of dark, strange, and anti-matter to help further understand how the Universe formed. The second major experiment launching on Saturday is the AstroRad Vest, designed to help protect astronauts from solar radiation as they orbit the Earth. This will help with long-duration missions when they are no longer in the safety of the Earth's magnetic field. The Zero-G Oven is also a big experiment headed to the ISS this weekend, it will be used as a proof of concept to helping astronauts cook food and bake various things while in space. This is also another experiment that will help during long-duration missions to places like the Moon or Mars. Lastly, they're sending up a Made in Space Recycler for used plastics to be repurposed as filament for use in a 3D printer.
Cargo will be late-loaded into Cygnus roughly 24-hours prior to launch.
Photo: NASA // Bill Ingalls