Northrop Grumman's 230 series Antares rocket made its final launch to the International Space Station from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. An upgraded Antares 330 series rocket is under development.
00:43 into orbit to the International Space Station.
00:47 [ Sound of spacecraft ]
01:09 Flight controllers reporting a nominal ascent for Antares.
01:17 [ Sound of spacecraft ]
01:44 Excuse the maximum dynamic pressure experienced on Antares.
01:57 Core pressurization valves are nominal.
01:59 Engines remain nominal and steady.
02:01 LCA, you're go.
02:03 Godspeed, Antares.
02:06 Thank you, LCA.
02:10 Halfway through the burn.
02:11 A hundred seconds to MECO, passing through 30,000 feet.
02:15 Attitude nominal.
02:18 Attitude remains nominal.
02:28 Engine remains nominal, steady at 100%.
02:35 Passing through 5,000 feet per second.
02:39 Core pressurization remains nominal.
02:41 Electrical power is nominal.
02:47 TBC remains nominal.
02:49 Engines remain nominal.
02:54 Electrical power is nominal.
03:02 Core pressurization is nominal. We're approximately 40 seconds from MECO.
03:14 Slow throttle down has begun.
03:18 Attitude nominal.
03:19 TBC pre-set down slew has started.
03:21 Attitude remains nominal.
03:23 Three minutes into the flight of Antares.
03:25 We've got about 15 seconds until main engine cutoff.
03:28 Slow throttle down, steady 55% thrust.
03:40 And we have main engine cutoff.
03:45 Helmets is taking care of business.
03:52 We have stage separation.
03:55 Switching to animation with confirmed stage separation as we lose Antares into the clouds on this hazy evening.
04:02 Stage two ignition time expected at mission time 246.
04:13 Stage one ignition expected in approximately 10 seconds.
04:19 Fairing is separated.
04:24 Antares currently in a coast phase.
04:29 Stage two ignition and TBC battery is nominal.
04:33 Second stage, solid rocket motor has ignited.
04:36 Power remains nominal.
04:38 This stage will burn for two minutes and 44 seconds.
04:43 The Castor 30XL will burn for approximately 2.5 minutes.
04:54 Power remains nominal.
05:00 Stage two TBC is nominal.
05:03 Flight controllers reporting good performance on the second stage.
05:11 Power remains nominal.
05:21 TBC remains nominal in stage two.
05:27 And power is nominal.
05:35 We're approximately 100 seconds from stage two burnout.
05:40 Attitude still nominal.
05:44 Attitude remains nominal.
05:46 TBC is performing normally.
05:57 Power remains nominal.
06:07 Stage two TBC remains nominal.
06:12 Power is nominal.
06:25 TBC remains nominal.
06:28 50 seconds to stage two burnout.
06:39 TBC and electrical power remain nominal.
06:56 TBC and power remain nominal.
07:03 Beginning to tail off in the mode of pressure and we have stage two burnout.
07:16 Six minutes, 55 seconds into the flight.
07:19 The second stage solid rocket motor has burned out.
07:24 ACS enabled.
07:26 ACS payload enabled.
07:28 We're now entering about approximately a two-minute coast phase.
07:31 Antares is in orbit and will coast for roughly 100 seconds prior to payload separation.
08:00 Seven minutes, 45 seconds into the flight of Antares.
08:09 After spacecraft separation, it will take approximately two hours, 30 minutes until the solar arrays are unfurled to start collecting power for the Cygnus vehicle.
08:20 Shortly after spacecraft separation, we'll have a representative from the International Space Station program online to provide some comments on the flight of Antares
08:32 and some comments on Cygnus's journey to the International Space Station.
08:36 We plan to wrap our coverage shortly after orbital insertion, but please stay tuned for updates online on the solar array unfurl.
08:45 Spacecraft separation is coming up on 30 seconds.
09:00 Power remains nominal.
09:02 Vehicle continues to coast prior to payload separation.
09:14 And we have payload separation.
09:24 The flight control teams confirmed the visuals you're seeing here on the animation.
09:28 Cygnus has separated from the Antares second stage, flying free and beginning its journey to the International Space Station.
09:42 All right, launch team, LC on countdown net.
09:46 We're going to go ahead and proceed with our post-launch checklist.
09:50 We've confirmed that we've had Cygnus separation.
09:54 Congratulations to the Cygnus team.
09:56 And that sound you heard a little earlier was a mic drop.
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