Cargo spaceship

The Cygnus space cargo ship blasting off atop an Antares rocket (Photo NASA/Bill Ingalls)

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It was late afternoon in California when Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to its destination. This is its sixth official mission, called Orbital-5 or simply Orb-5 but also CRS OA-5, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft starting its CRS-9 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-9 (Cargo Resupply Service 9) mission, also referred to as SPX-9. After almost ten minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the ninth mission to send the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.