Cygnus CRS-2 NG-17 (S.S. Piers Sellers)

Mission

Cygnus CRS-2 NG-17 (S.S. Piers Sellers)

• Type: Resupply
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit

This is the 17th flight of the Orbital ATK's uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 16th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. This Cygnus spacecraft is named after American astronaut and climate scientist Piers Sellers. Sellers was a part of three Space Shuttle missions tasked with assembly of the International Space Station.

Location

Launch Area 0 A

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Launch Area 0 A has witnessed the launch of 19 rockets, including 19 orbital launch attempts. While Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA, has been the site for 80 rocket launches.

Wallops Flight Facility is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and primarily serves to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other federal agencies. WFF includes an extensively instrumented range to support launches of more than a dozen types of sounding rockets; small expendable suborbital and orbital rockets; high-altitude balloon flights carrying scientific instruments for atmospheric and astronomical research; and, using its Research Airport, flight tests of aeronautical research aircraft, including uncrewed aerial vehicles.

Rocket

Northrop Grumman Space Systems Antares 230+

Antares known during early development as Taurus II, is an expendable launch system developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (now part of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems after Northrop Grumman acquired Orbital ATK) and the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau to launch the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's COTS and CRS programs. Able to launch payloads heavier than 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) into low-Earth orbit, Antares is the largest rocket operated by Orbital ATK. Antares launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and made its inaugural flight on April 21, 2013.

Learn more about the Antares 230+

Agency

Northrop Grumman Space Systems

Northrup Grumman Space Systems designs, builds and delivers space, defence and aviation-related systems to customers around the world. They aquired Orbital ATK in 2018 along with its launchers and ongoing missions.