Antares CRS Orb-1 Photo Feature: Rider on the Storms

This stunning image was captured at dusk as the launch vehicle was readied for launch the following day. SpaceFlight Insider's team and affiliates have gathered the following imagery from this historic mission. Photo Credit: Elliot Severn/SpaceFlight Insider

SpaceFlight Insider

WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, Va — Orbital Sciences Corporation’s first launch of 2014, the Orb-1 mission and the first under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract took to the skies on Jan. 9 under cruelly-cold skies. The ice storms generated by the “polar vortex” had caused the temps to drop to almost single digits. It was a storm, or phenomenon of another sort however which has caused the launch of Antares to slip from Jan. 8 until the following day.

Space weather, in the form of abnormally high radiation had forced the postponement, but the weather had improved with the temperatures reaching the low 30s. Due to the delay, many photographers got to spend an extended period of time in and around the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceports (MARS) Pad-0A, As the sun set at the pad, the crisp conditions created iconic imagery which are sure to be shared for decades to come.

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