(Wallops Island, VA 14 December 2013) – Today, at NASA’s direction, Orbital Sciences Corporation’s (NYSE: ORB) Cygnus operations team deferred loading the mission’s final cargo into the spacecraft, postponing this operation by one day. Orbital will await NASA’s direction for the final cargo load tomorrow while the cooling loop issue aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is being investigated. If given the go-ahead to load the final, time sensitive cargo on Sunday, December 15, roll out to the launch pad would occur on Tuesday, December 17, with the launch on December 19, and rendezvous and berthing with the ISS on December 22. Please visit Orbital’s mission update website for additional updates.
About Orbital
Orbital develops and manufactures small- and medium-class rockets and space systems for commercial, military and civil government customers. The company’s primary products are satellites and launch vehicles, including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous-Earth orbit and planetary spacecraft for communications, remote sensing, scientific and defense missions; human-rated space systems for Earth-orbit, lunar and other missions; ground- and air-launched rockets that deliver satellites into orbit; and missile defense systems that are used as interceptor and target vehicles. Orbital also provides satellite subsystems and space-related technical services to government agencies and laboratories. More information about Orbital can be found at http://www.orbital.com. Follow the company on Twitter @OrbitalSciences.
