Orbital To Accelerate New Airfares, Use Other Vehicles for Cygnus

摘要

Orbital Sciences Corp. announced Nov. 5 it would accelerate the introduction of an upgraded version of its Antares launch vehicle after an Oct. 28 launch failure, and would use other launch vehicles for Cygnus missions to the international space station until the new Antares is ready. Under the "go-forward" plan the company announced, Orbital will perform one or two launches of Cygnus cargo vehicles using a launch vehicle yet to be announced. Orbital Chief Executive David W. Thompson said in a conference call with financial analysts that the company is in discussions with three companies, two American and one European, to perform those launches.