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Orbital Sets Date for Second Paid Cargo Run to Station

Orbital Sciences Corp. will launch its second paid cargo run to the international space station May 6, the Dulles, Va.-based company said in a March 19 press release.

The mission will be the second of eight that Orbital owes NASA under a $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract signed in 2008. It will be the third time Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft has visited the orbital outpost, counting a demonstration cargo run in September that did not count toward fulfilling the company’s contract with NASA. It will be the fourth flight for Cygnus’ carrier rocket, the medium-lift Antares.

Liftoff is slated for 3:49 p.m. EDT from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a state-operated facility at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va.