Antares Rocket Launch Rescheduled to Tuesday Thanks to a Boat

Oct 28, 2014 08:08 AM EDT | Matt Mercuro

The Antares rocket launch on Monday was called off after a sailboat entered the danger zone southeast of the Virginia launch site.

Orbital Sciences' third cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was scheduled to launch on Monday evening. When controllers were scheduled to launch the rocket, a boat got in the way and the launch was canceled, according to early reports.

The boat forced the controller to stop the lift-off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Island. The controller came to know about the unexpected presence of the boat when Antares rocket was set to launch.

Orbital Sciences' rocket will send a robotic Cygnus spacecraft on a resupply run to the International Space Station.

The launch has been rescheduled to Tuesday at 6:22 p.m. Most weather reports say there shouldn't be any issues during that time.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that sky-watchers along the East Coast, as far north as Massachusetts and as far south as South Carolina could get a glimpse of the launch.

People from other locations around the world should be able to watch NASA's webcast of the launch live, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Mission controllers said when they realized the unexpected presence of the boat, they tried to contact the boat, but they couldn't get it to move in time.

"This was strictly a range issue this evening that terminated the count just 10 minutes before the scheduled liftoff time at the end of a 10-minute window," said NASA commentator Rob Navias during a webcast of the launch attempt.

The Cygnus spacecraft will deliver approximately 5,000 pounds of supplies, food and experiments to the astronauts aboard the ISS.

Antares will appear as a bright, moving star. Observers who use binoculars should be able to see a tiny V-shaped contrail. Since the first stage of Antares is liquid fueled, its ascent is slower than the Minotaur rockets that have launched from Wallops recently, according to Space.com.

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