According to NASA, the world’s first private rocket called Antares was successfully launched. The launch of the rocket was held on Sunday, for this it was used by the cosmodrome located on the island of Wallops (East coast of Virginia). However, according to the initial plan, this was supposed to happen on April 17: the flight was Omenn just a few minutes before the start for technical reasons.
The launch of the Antsres missile was carried out according to the terms of the long -term contract concluded between the orbital scientific corporation for commercial delivery of goods to the ISS and NASA. According to preliminary data, eight launches of spacecraft will be carried out, the first two of them will be held in test mode.
The main task of the Antsres missile is to deliver to orbit a model of the Signus cargo spacecraft, the developer of which was the orbital scientific corporation with subsequent removal of a number of nanosomers like Phonesat.
For reference: Antares is a disposable rocket-carrier designed to launch cargo, the weight of which does not exceed 5.5 tons in low support orbit. Earlier until December 2012, the rocket bore another name – “Taurus -2 ″. This missile was equipped with two steps: the first was two oxygen-curous missile engine NK-33, which were developed by Nikolai Kuznetsov, the Soviet general designer of the aviation and missile engine for the super-heavy launch vehicle N-1 (its project was closed together with the Soviet lunar program in the 1970s), the second stage is the development of ATK. In case of need, the Antares missile can be equipped with the third steps.