A service of Salisbury University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

ISS Wallops Resupply Mission Finally Lifts Off on Sunday

Wallops Flight Facility

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - A load of supplies is headed to the International Space Station, this time from Virginia's eastern shore.

NASA's commercial shipper, Orbital ATK, launched the cargo ship Sunday morning from Wallops Island, aboard an unmanned Antares rocket.

The Cygnus capsule should reach the orbiting lab Tuesday. It's loaded with 7,400 pounds of cargo - including lots of ice cream and frozen fruit bars for the six station astronauts.

This marked Orbital ATK's first launch from its home turf in more than a year. The last time it made a space station delivery, it used another company's rocket flying from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A launch attempt on Saturday was nixed after a plane strayed into the restricted airspace.

Orbital ATK has named the capsule after moonwalker Gene Cernan, who died in January.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.