CAPE CANAVERAL — Godspeed, S.S. John Glenn.
An unmanned cargo ship named in honor of the pioneering astronaut is on its way to the International Space Station after launching from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday atop a modern version of the Atlas rocket Glenn rode into orbit in 1962.
United Launch Alliance’s 19-story Atlas V thundered from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 41 at 11:11 a.m. ET, flying through a few low clouds on a northeasterly trajectory over the Atlantic Ocean.
Twenty-one minutes later, an Orbital ATK Cygnus craft packed with more than 7,600 pounds of food, supplies and experiments separated from the rocket’s Centaur upper stage.
Rendezvous at the international research outpost orbiting 250 miles overhead is planned Saturday morning, after Thursday’s scheduled launch and docking by an astronaut and cosmonaut who will join three Expedition 51 crew members.
Research aboard the Cygnus include a mini-fridge-sized plant growth chamber and experiments studying DNA to better understand the aging process and a potential improvement in chemotherapy treatment of cancer.
LIFTOFF! @OrbitalATK’s #Cygnus cargo vehicle leaves Earth to deliver cargo and supplies to @Space_Station: nasa.gov/live
The launch was the third of a Cygnus cargo craft by United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V, which can launch heavier loads that Orbital ATK’s own Antares rocket based on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
The mission was ULA’s fourth launch of 2017; the next one is not expected before August.
SpaceX is next up on the Eastern Range, with a Falcon 9 rocket targeting an April 30 launch of a classified National Reconnaissance Office mission from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A.
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