If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member . If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further.

The International Space Station cargo ship launching from Cape Canaveral on March 22 has been given a name — the SS Rick Husband.

Orbital ATK, in keeping with its five previous commercial freighters named after astronauts who have passed away, has christened the latest craft for the commander of shuttle Columbia’s ill-fated 2003 mission that was lost upon re-entry.

** CYGNUS FLIGHT HISTORY **

Mission, name, launch, re-entry

Demo (SS G. David Low) Sept. 18 – Oct. 23, 2013

CRS-1 (SS C. Gordon Fullerton) Jan. 9 – Feb. 19, 2014

CRS-2 (SS Janice Voss) July 13 – Aug. 17, 2014

CRS-3 (SS Deke Slayton I) Oct. 28, 2014 *Launch failure

CRS-4 (SS Deke Slayton II) Dec. 6, 2015 – Feb. 20, 2016

Liftoff of the SS Rick Husband is planned for 11:02 p.m. EDT (0302 GMT) on March 22 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on a three-day trek to rendezvous with the space station. Cygnus is carrying goods and supplies for the outpost and its residents.

This photo gallery shows the sequence of pre-launch events for Cygnus at the Kennedy Space Center. The pressurized cargo module was loaded with its space station supplies, then mated to the propulsion module, bagged and relocated from the Space Station Processing Facility to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility for fueling, installation of the NanoRacks smallsat deployer, final late-stow and hatch closure for flight.

On Wednesday, Cygnus will be encapsulated in the Atlas 5 rocket’s nose cone. Delivery to the United Launch Alliance rocket assembly building is planned for next Monday.

Photo Credit: NASA-KSC





See earlier Cygnus OA-6 coverage.

Our Atlas archive.