NASA Public Affairs Officer Josh Byerly talks with Bruce Manners, a project executive for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), about Orbital Sciences Corporation's work to provide cargo capability to the International Space Station.
Orbital is developing and qualifying a new launch vehicle called Antares to enable lower-cost COTS launches and the Cygnus cargo module. Antares will be launching from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Orbital plans to launch Antares on its first test flight by the end of this year. Orbital also will launch Cygnus atop an Antares rocket in 2013 for its first demonstration flight to the station. Cygnus is designed to deliver cargo to the station then return to Earth filled with trash for destructive re-entry.
