The supply ship for ISS departed this morning in Vietnam time

It has been 13 months since the missile Antares brought along the ship Cygnus exploded during the supply mission for the ISS International Space Station. After more than a year of troubleshooting, today, Cygnus's next flight will be restarted by NASA and their partner Orbital ATK.

Orbital ATK restarted a cargo flight to ISS

Orbital ATK and SpaceX are currently the only commercial suppliers for NASA flights to transport goods to the ISS International Space Station. However, there seems to be a bad luck pursuing two American space carriers. More than a year ago was Orbital ATK's Antares missile explosion and in late June, SpaceX also failed to test the Falcon 9 launch.

The Antares missile exploded in last year's mission.

All American flights to ISS were interrupted from April 14, after SpaceX's final CRS-6. This caused astronauts on the International Space Station to be in a shortage of supplies and equipment, although several Russian and Japanese supplies were made.

It can be seen that there is a great pressure on Cygnus's flight. Not only is it to solve the problem of necessities for ISS, if the flight is successful, this will be the mark marking the return of the US as a regular supplier to the International Space Station.

Therefore, to ensure that the incident does not happen again, Orbital ATK used a traditional rocket instead of their Antares prototype. Cygnus will fly with Atlas V, a much more reliable missile. " This is an important milestone, the return of Cygnus marks the regular US presence in the ISS cargo mission," said Randy Gordon, NASA's flight support project director.

Cygnus has a little upgrade compared to the previous year.

This year's Cygnus flying version has a bit of an upgrade over the previous generation. The length of the train has dropped to more than 6m. However, it is capable of transporting 25% more goods than last year's version. Solar cell systems also have changes in design and operation. The panels are lighter and will spread out arc shapes rather than traditional rectangular arrays.

This time, NASA will send ISS a series of experimental instruments, with a remarkable focus on new devices that help research bacteria and microorganisms. The packages were packed long before, so they could not send more parts to overcome a recent power outage on the ISS.

This Cygnus ship is called SS Deke Slayton II , named after an astronaut in NASA's Mercury 7 project. SS Deke Slayton II is expected to leave the launch pad at 5:55 pm EST, around 5:55 am on December 4 in Vietnam time.