How to watch Orbital Sciences’ first delivery to the International Space Station

It's another history-making day today for commercial spaceflight! We've already seen SpaceX Corporation become the first private space firm to make cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, but as of this morning, Orbital Sciences Corporation adds competition to the market!

At 10:58 a.m. Eastern Time today, September 18th, Orbital Sciences launched one of its Cygnus Advanced Maneuvering Spacecraft from NASA's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, perched atop one of their Antares rockets — the same type of rocket that delivered NASA's LADEE mission into space almost two weeks ago.

The launch was aired on NASA TV, but those living along or near the East Coast of the United States or in Atlantic Canada had a chance to witness it for themselves. This launch wasn't as visible as the one two weeks ago, unfortunately. LADEE launched into orbit late at night, so the glow of the Antares rocket engines could be seen from as far away as southern regions of Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Since this launch took place during the day, you needed to be much closer to get a good view of it.

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Now that the Cygnus spacecraft is safely in orbit, it will circle the Earth for the next four days, to match speed and orbit with the International Space Station. It is scheduled to rendezvous and dock with the station early in the morning on Sunday, September 22nd, to complete its delivery. It will remain docked there for roughly a month while the astronauts unload it and then load it back up with any equipment or experiments that are destined for the return trip to Earth.

With both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences making deliveries into space, a rush of commercial spaceflight companies going into orbit can't be too far behind. Maybe very soon, this scenario 'cooked up' by the ISS astronauts won't just be a joke:

(Images courtesy: Orbital Sciences Corporation, NASA MARS/Wallops)

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