Antares carrier rocket with a cargo ship Cygnus launched on November 12 from the US space center to the International Space Station.
9 November 2017. The launch vehicle is located in a horizontal assembly hangar (the English Horizontal Integration Facility), from where it is taken to the launch pad. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
The booster rocket is taken to the launch pad. Antares is a one-time launch vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation and Yuzhnoye Design Bureau for launching payloads of up to 5.5 tons. For comparison, the maximum carrying capacity of the Soyuz-FG carrier’s rakkto bearer is 7.4 t. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
Pointer to not get lost. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
The next stage is to lift the rocket into a vertical position on the launch pad in Virginia, 9 November 2017. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
The launch vehicle launches the private automatic cargo space ship Cygnus (Cygnus), which was also developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
(Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
The number of launches Antares rocket - 7, 6 of which are successful. So far, Soyuz-FG is ahead - 61 from the 61 launch has been successful. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
Initially, two oxygen-kerosene AJ-26 rocket engines were installed in the first stage - developed by Aerojet and a US-licensed modification of the Soviet NK-33 engine (from 37 copies purchased from Kuznetsov’s SNTC) for use on American rockets carriers (including in the "Antares").
After the accident that occurred during the launch of 2014 in October of the year, it was announced that the first-stage engine AJ-26 was changed to an RD-181 engine - developed by NPO Energomash specifically for Antares. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
Go! Launch of the launch vehicle Antares with the space truck Swan, November 12 2014. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
(Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
(Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
(Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):
He will not return. The design of the ship Swan does not provide for the return of cargo to Earth, so after undocking from the ISS and information from orbit, the cargo ship "SIGNUS" with recyclable debris from the ISS is destroyed when entering the dense atmosphere. (Photo by NASA | Bill Ingalls):