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Rocket launch, expected to be seen from Connecticut, delayed until Monday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The launch of a rocket carrying equipment and supplies for the International Space Station has been delayed 24 hours. Connecticut may get...
Antares Rocket

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The launch of a rocket carrying equipment and supplies for the International Space Station has been delayed 24 hours.

Connecticut may get to see the rocket as it ascends into space.

Orbital ATK, one of NASA’s shippers, had originally planned to launch its own cargo ship Sunday night around 8:03 p.m. Eastern time from Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch  postponed was  24 hours  due to a cable that did not perform as expected during the pre-launch check out.

The launch is now scheduled for October 17 at 7:40 p.m. EDT.

When it is launched, the rocket should be visible in Connecticut about 2.5 minutes after launch at about 5 degrees above the horizon, (about the width of three fingers held at arm’s length), as it heads southeast over the Atlantic. The launch will be carried on NASA TV. 

The company’s retooled Antares rocket will do the honors.

The rocket will carry supplies, equipment and cameras. There will even be an iPad Air 2. One of the experiments being sent up is designed to study how fire behaves in micro gravity.

An Antares promptly exploded the last time one took off, on Oct. 28, 2014. Orbital ATK has spent the past two years redesigning the unmanned rocket and rebuilding the launch pad. It also made good on two station deliveries using another company’s rockets in Florida.

NASA’s other supplier, Space X, is grounded after a rocket exploded at its Cape Canaveral launch pad in September during a test firing, destroying the rocket and the satellite it was due to launch.

That launchpad is used by SpaceX to launch rockets that carry supplies to the International Space Station as well as satellites.

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