Los
Angeles Times: Yesterday at 5:00pm, Orbital Sciences Corp
successfully launched its Antares rocket on a first test
flight. The largest rocket ever to launch from NASA's Wallops
Flight Facility in Virginia, it is carrying a dummy cargo
capsule similar to the one Orbital will use to resupply the
International Space Station. The test mission was the first of
two that Orbital has scheduled before it launches its first
space station resupply mission later this year. Another company
under contract with NASAâmdash;Space
Exploration Technologies, known as
SpaceXâmdash;successfully tested its Falcon 9
rocket in 2010 and
recently
launched its second resupply mission to the space station.
The two craft differ in that SpaceX's is reusable, whereas
Orbital's is disposable and will burn up in Earth's atmosphere
at the end of the mission.
