On February 19 at 19:40 Kyiv time (12:40 p.m. EST) medium-class Antares rocket lifted off for the first time in 2022 from Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. It orbited cargo vehicle Cygnus to deliver 3729 kg of payload to the International Space Station as ordered by NASA.

Antares is a two-stage rocket. Core structure of the Antares’ Stage 1 was developed and produced by Ukraine’s Yuzhnoye State Design Office and Yuzhmash Machine Building plant in cooperation with Ukraine’s Hartron-Arkos (Kharkiv), Hartron-Ucom (Zaporizhzhya), Chezara, Rapid (Chernihiv) and Kievprylad (Kyiv) etc. as ordered by the US corporation Northrop Grumman.

Antares pre-launch processing, testing and launch were supported by the specialists from Yuzhnoye State Design Office, Yuzhmash Machine Building plant and Hartron-Arkos. Real-time launch technical support, acquisition and processing of the telemetry information were provided and as a result, Ukrainian specialists have provided full scope of services in the area of their responsibility.

Under Antares program the Ukrainian party has accomplished all the design, test and Stage 1 Core Structure hardware production liabilities.

NG-17 Cygnus spacecraft was named after the astronaut Piers Sellers in honor of his role in assembling the ISS and his contributions as climate scientist.

Goal of the mission is to supply the ISS with crew supplies, space equipment and scientific experiments, then remove the waste cargo from the ISS and dispose of it in the Earth atmosphere.

This is the first Cygnus mission featuring enhanced capabilities to perform a re-boost to the space station’s orbit as a standard service for NASA; one re-boost is planned while Cygnus is connected to the orbiting laboratory.

Launch of Cygnus mission will support the following space station research:

  • a study that examines the effects of a drug on cancer cells;
  • a new combustion facility;
  • an investigation from Colgate-Palmolive that will leverage the acceleration of skin aging in microgravity to help create and validate an engineered tissue model to serve as a platform for testing potrential products to protect aging skin;
  • a demonstration of a lithium-ion secondary battery capable of safe, stable operation under extreme temperatures and in a vacuum environment;
  • new hydrogen sensors that will be tested for the space station’s oxygen generation system;
  • a system that will test hydronic and aeroponic techniques for plant growth and allow scientists to observe root growth video and still images.

Since 2013 Antares rocket was launched 16 times, 15 of which being successful.

By joining the forces and knowledge of two different schools of space technology, Ukrainian and American engineers have managed to promptly develop a reliable, effective and low-cost commercial launch vehicle for cargo delivery missions to the ISS under the NASA’s COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) and CRS (Commercial Resupply Services) programs. This made it possible to deliver food and equipment to the ISS, enabling the international team of astronauts to maintain ISS functioning and carry out scientific and research experiments aboard the ISS.