SpaceX and NASA announced today that the launch of the fifth operational SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX CRS-5 (SpX-5), has been delayed from December 16 to December 19.

NASA said the three-day slip will allow SpaceX “to take extra time to ensure they do everything possible on the ground to prepare for a successful launch,” adding that the Falcon rocket and Dragon spacecraft are in “good health.”  Launch will be at 1:20 pm EST.  NASA TV coverage begins at 12:15 pm EST.

That means complementary shifts in the schedule of briefings associated with the launch and berthing to ISS.   The three pre-launch news conferences will shift to December 18 (at 12:00 noon, 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm EST)) and grapple and berthing will take place on December 21.   See our calendar for more details.

SpaceX launches cargo to the ISS under a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.  Twelve Space-X CRS flights delivering 20 tons of cargo to the ISS are scheduled through the end of 2016. 

Orbital Sciences Corporation is the other company that provides CRS services to NASA.  The most recent launch of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft failed on October 28.  Orbital is purchasing launch services from the United Launch Alliance and upgrading Antares and Cygnus to allow the company to meet its own contractual commitment of delivering 20 tons of cargo to the ISS by the end of 2016, which it now expects to accomplish in seven rather than eight launches.

Orbital Sciences Corporation gave more details today about its plans to fulfill its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA to send cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) in the wake of its October Antares rocket failure.

Antares exploded 15 seconds after liftoff on October 28, 2014, destroying its Cygnus cargo spacecraft filled with cargo destined for the ISS.   It was Orbital’s third operational cargo flight to the ISS.  An investigation is ongoing, but Orbital Chairman, President and CEO David Thompson indicated last month that the AJ26 rocket engines are the likely culprit.  Orbital was already in the process of deciding to switch to a different rocket engine, but still has not announced which one it has selected.  The AJ26 is a Russian NK-33 engine built in the 1970s and imported to the United States and refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Thompson said last month that his company would purchase launch services from another company to take Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS and still meet its contractual commitment to deliver 20 tons of cargo by the end of 2016.   An upgraded version of Cygnus capable of handling more tonnage already was in development and Orbital will combine the cargo that was to be launched on five more missions into just four.

Today, Orbital announced that the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) Atlas V rocket is its choice for at least one Cygnus mission in the fourth quarter of 2015, with an option for a second in 2016 if needed.  Between the greater lift capability of the Atlas V compared to Antares, and the more commodious Cygnus, the mass to ISS will increase by 35 percent.

Meanwhile, the company is proceeding with its plans to replace the AJ26 engines with something new, though the announcement today still did not identify what it is.  Three launches of the upgraded Antares are planned in 2016.  The upgraded Antares with the new Cygnus will increase the mass to ISS by 20 percent over the original Antares and Cygnus.

Antares is launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, VA.  The October 28 explosion damaged the pad and surrounding structures, though not as badly as many feared.  Orbital said today that repairs will be completed and the pad recertified by the end of 2015.

Orbital, which is in the middle of a merger with ATK, said in its statement today that its revised approach to meeting the CRS contract commitments “is not expected to create any material adverse financial impacts in 2015 or future years…” 

The CRS contract is for services provided to NASA using spacecraft and launch vehicles developed under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, colloquially known as “commercial cargo.”  COTS was a public-private partnership where both the government and the private sector invested in developing these new capabilities with a goal of reduced costs to the government compared to a traditional contracting mechanism.  Skeptics are closely watching how Orbital and NASA cope with the Antares accident and whether the federal government must shoulder any of the costs.

NASA has released photos of its Orion capsule floating in the Pacific at the end of its Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission on Friday.  The capsule was recovered by a NASA-U.S. Navy team and will be on display for the media today (Monday, December 8) at Naval Base San Diego.

Orion was successfully launched on Friday, December 5, from Cape Canaveral, FL on a Delta IV rocket, after a one-day delay.  It splashed down in the Pacific about four-and-a-half hours later after two Earth orbits.  The purpose of the launch was primarily to test Orion’s heat shield.  Although the spacecraft is being designed to carry people, no one was aboard this version, which is only a test model that is not equipped with life support systems, for example.  The first launch of an Orion carrying a crew is not expected until at least 2021.

Orion was recovered aboard the USS Anchorage, which is seen in the background of this photo of Orion floating in the Pacific at the end of its two-orbit mission. Two of the orange Crew Module Uprighting System (CMUS) airbags are shown in the photo.  In one of the few glitches in the test, one CMUS underinflated and another did not inflate.  They are used to turn the capsule right side up if it lands upside down in the water and fortunately were not needed.   More photos are posted on NASA’s Orion website.

Orion test spacecraft in Pacific Ocean off Baja California at end of EFT-1 mission, December 5, 2014.  Photo credit:  NASA

The EFT-1 mission was conducted by Lockheed Martin, Orion’s manufacturer, which contracted for the Delta IV launch from United Launch Alliance.  NASA is buying the resulting data from Lockheed Martin.  NASA estimates the cost of the EFT-1 mission at $370 million, which is only for the launch and non-reusable parts of the spacecraft.  It plans to use the capsule for another test flight, so its cost is not included in the estimate.

NASA is engaged in a media blitz surrounding the mission under the theme “Journey to Mars.”   While Orion is being designed to someday send humans to Mars, such flights are in the long term future.   President Obama’s National Space Policy calls for humans to orbit, not land on, Mars in the 2030s and many are skeptical that is achievable with the budgets envisioned for NASA for the indefinite future.  Landing on Mars is an even more expensive and technically challenging level of effort than simply orbiting, since a spacecraft is needed that can descend through the atmosphere, land safely, support humans for many months, ascend and return to Earth.  The Mars Curiosity rover — famous for its “7 minutes of terror” during landing — weighs only one ton, a fraction of what a spacecraft carrying humans would weigh.

President Obama did not release a statement after the EFT-1 test, but his science adviser, John Holdren, praised the mission although the statement was as much about broad Administration space policy, including its priority of developing commercial crew systems to take astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station (ISS), as Orion. 

Orion originally was part of President George W. Bush’s Constellation program to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020 and to Mars thereafter.  President Obama proposed cancelling the Constellation program in 2010 (as part of the FY2011 budget process), igniting a firestorm of controversy.  Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress opposed cancelling Constellation and were not enthusiastic about commercial crew.  In the end, Congress and the President compromised in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act where Congress agreed to the commercial crew initiative (though it has not provided the amount of funding the President wants) and to cancelling Constellation, but in return for NASA building a new large rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), and a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) to enable humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit.  Orion was selected as the MPCV so is one of the few elements of the Constellation program to survive.  The first destination for SLS/Orion remains controversial — President Obama wants to send astronauts to an asteroid, but the concept has not generated much support.

Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee also praised the EFT-1 mission in separate statements.  That committee’s Space Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the status of Orion and SLS on Wednesday.

In contrast to all the issues that cropped up yesterday, today’s launch of the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission went off without a hitch.

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket lifted off on time at 7:05 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  Orion is now in its preliminary orbit.  Its second stage will fire again in a little over an hour to raise the apogee (highest point) to 3,600 miles.   Orion will then descend through the atmosphere and splashdown in the Pacific four hours and 23 minutes after the launch.  

EFT-1 is primarily a test of Orion’s heatshield.  The spacecraft will be recovered and returned to its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, to determine how well the heat shield materials withstood the heat of reentry.  NASA is buying the data from Lockheed Martin.