Antares Awesome Afternoon Ascent Carrying Cygnus Cargo Craft to Space Station Crew: Photo/Video Gallery

UpClose view of twin RD-181 first stage engines and massive flames as Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying Cygnus commercial resupply spacecraft launches April 17, 2019 from Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Northrop Grumman's 11th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station to deliver about 7,600 pounds of science and supplies.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Ken Kremer -- SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM – 25 April 2019

NASA WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, VA –  Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket mounted an awesome afternoon ascent to orbit on April 17 carrying the Cygnus commercial cargo craft to the crew of the International Space Station (ISS)  just one and a half days after lifting off fromNASA’s Wallops launch base on Virginia’s Eastern shore. 

The biggest crowd ever gathered for an Antares launch witnessed the flawless performance put on by NASA’s commercial cargo partner Northrop Grumman as the rocket soared in its upgraded 230 configuration at 4:46 p.m. EDT (2046 GMT) Wednesday, April 17 from seaside Launch Pad 0A at the Virginia Space Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Enjoy our expanding gallery of Space UpClose imagery of Antares launch. 

Check back as the gallery grows of my photos and video imagery ringing the launch pad – catching up as I’m been in transit and covering the SpaceX Crew Dragon anomaly.  

Antares and Nature blast off for space and the space station. The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, with Cygnus resupply spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman's 11th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station will deliver about 7,600 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

The Cygnus NG-11 mission is Northrop Grumman's 11th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station. 

Launch of Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket and Cygnus NG-11 cargo freighter on 11th contracted resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station on April 17, 2019 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Huge crowds enjoyed the stunning April 17 blastoff of the Northrop Grumman Antares rocket from NASA Wallops launch base on the Virginia shore carrying 40 micetronauts, a robotic astronaut helper, 63 thinsat free flying experiments from over 250 students and a wide array of research.  

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

The two stage Antares measures 139 feet (42.5 m) tall and 13 feet (3.9 m) in diameter. 

The 14 story tall commercial expendable Antares launch vehicle is launching in the upgraded and more powerful re-engined 230 configuration rocket compared to the original version. 

The first stage is powered by two newly built Russian-built NPO Energomash RD-181 engines with independent thrust vectoring and fires for 3 minutes and 35 seconds before separating from the upper stage. They are test fired by Energomash in Russia and shipped to Wallops.

They produce about 860,000 pounds of thrust, roughly 100,000 more thrust than the original Antares 100 configuration. They are throttled down at Max Q to maintain core integrity. 

Watch my Antares NG-11 launch video here:

Video Caption: Watch and listen to the power of Antares as the pad camera gets creamed by tremendous heave of mud and exhaust. Launch of Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying Cygnus NG-11 cargo freighter roars to life on April 17, 2019 from Pad-0A on NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on 11^th resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station - as seen in this video camera stationed at pad. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

The second stage comprises the Castor 30XL solid rocket motor producing approximately107,000 pounds of thrust.  It burns for about 156 seconds.

Cygnus NG-11 arrived and berthed at the ISS on April 19 with close to 7,600 pounds of research and supplies to space station. 

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

The crew has begun unloading the cargo as they also prepare for the arrival of the next cargo ship- the Dragon CRS-17 vessel to be launched by SpaceX now retargeted to May 1.

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station for about 3 months until July 23, 2019, when it will depart the station, deploy NanoRacks customer CubeSats, and then have an extended mission until December 2019 before it will dispose of several tons of trash during a fiery reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

UpClose view of twin RD-181 first stage engines and massive flames as Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying Cygnus commercial resupply spacecraft launches April 17, 2019 from Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Northrop Grumman's 11th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station to deliver about 7,600 pounds of science and supplies.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

This will be the final mission under Northrop Grumman’s CRS-1 contract with NASA before starting the CRS-2 contract missions in the fall of 2019. Under Northrop Grumman’s Commercial Resupply Services contract, the company will fly 11 missions.

UpClose view of twin RD-181 first stage engines and massive flames as Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying Cygnus commercial resupply spacecraft launches April 17, 2019 from Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Northrop Grumman's 11th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station to deliver about 7,600 pounds of science and supplies.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics.

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Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events

Learn more about the upcoming/recent SpaceX Falcon 9/CRS-17 launch to ISS, Falcon Heavy, SpaceX Demo-1 launch/test failure, SpaceX Beresheet launch, NASA missions, ULA Atlas & Delta launches, Northrop Grumman Antares, SpySats and more at Ken’s upcoming outreach events at Quality Inn Kennedy Space Center, Titusville, FL, evenings: 

Apr 29/30 May 1: “SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-17 resupply launch to ISS, Demo-1, Beresheet launches, SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches, upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9, ULA, NRO & USAF Spysats, SLS, Orion, Boeing and SpaceX Commercial crew capsules, OSIRIS-Rex, InSight Mars lander, Curiosity and Opportunity explore Mars, NH at Pluto, Ultima Thule and more,” Kennedy Space Center Quality Inn, Titusville, FL, evenings. Photos for sale

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com

Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/SpaceUpClose.com