Private cargo ship rockets into space

Supply vessel heads to space station

A commercial cargo ship made its successful debut Wednesday, rocketing toward the International Space Station and doubling the number of NASA’s private suppliers for the high-flying lab.

Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its first supply ship from Virginia’s Eastern Shore. “Look out ISS, here we come,” the company said in a tweet.

The capsule named Cygnus — bearing 1,300 pounds of food, clothing and goodies for the astronauts — is due at the orbiting outpost on Sunday.

The Virginia-based Orbital Sci- ences is only the second business to attempt a shipment like this. The California-based SpaceX company has been delivering station supplies for more than a year under a NASA contract.

“If you needed more tangible proof that this is a new era of exploration, it’s right here, right now in Virginia,” NASA associate administrator Robert Lightfoot said at a post-launch news conference.

Orbital Sciences’ unmanned An- tares rocket — named for the bright red star — blasted into a clear sky from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. A test launch in April went well. So did this one, with a camera on the rocket providing dramatic views of the coastline. The entire commercial effort dates back five years.

Astronauts Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano will use the space station’s robot arm to grab Cygnus from orbit and attach it to the space station.