A package of supplies and fresh new science experiments were launched at 11:05 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Atlas V rocket.
The 188-foot rocket, operated by a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, called United Space Alliance, will blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and spend three days traveling to the space station, where six American and Russian astronauts are living and working. The launch will be broadcast live on NASA TV starting at 10 p.m.
Atlas will carry on its tip a nearly 4-ton package of clothes, food, technologies, and scientific instruments, all inside a pressurized spacecraft called Cygnus, built and operated by Dulles, Va.-based Orbital ATK.
Also onboard will be scientific experiments from government and commercial researchers who want to take advantage of a zero-gravity environment to test new adhesives, observe behavior of soil, measure the chemical composition of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere, and study how fire spreads in space.
