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Bad weather delays space station shipment

Thick cloud and rain have prevented an unmanned Atlas rocket from lifting off with 3300kg of critical supplies for the International Space Station.

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Wet and cloudy weather has prevented NASA from resuming commercial space station deliveries. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Wet and cloudy weather has prevented NASA from resuming commercial space station deliveries.

The space agency was looking to get back on track with the first US shipment to the International Space Station in nearly eight months, but thick clouds and rain prevented an unmanned Atlas rocket from lifting off at dusk on Thursday with 3300kg of critical supplies.

With 14 minutes left, and no better weather in sight, launch director Bill Cullen halted the countdown, praising his team for "great discipline".

The next launch opportunity is Friday, but the forecast isn't much better.

Two of the last four commercial supply runs, contracted by NASA, have failed. The first launch accident occurred in Virginia in October 2014, the second at Cape Canaveral in June. Add in a lost Russian cargo ship in April, and the cupboards in orbit have suffered.

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NASA's space station program manager, Kirk Shireman, said earlier this week that without another delivery, the six astronauts' food would run out in April. A Russian supply run planned for later this month, if successful, would buy more time. Even with the resumption of American shipments, it will take a year for the 400km-high pantry to be as full as it was before the string of accidents, he told reporters.

Orbital ATK is using another company's rocket to launch this shipment because its own rocket, the Antares, remains grounded.

Its newest Cygnus capsule - named after the swan constellation - holds food, clothes, Christmas presents, spacewalking gear, high-pressure nitrogen and oxygen tanks for the air supply, and science experiments.


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