Orbital's Antares rocket makes test flight

A new rocket has launched from the US eastern seaboard to prove its readiness to help service the International Space Station (ISS).

The 40m-tall Antares vehicle lifted clear of the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 1700 local time (2100 GMT), BBC reports.
The apparently flawless 10-minute ascent should lead to it being allowed to propel an unmanned cargo ship towards the ISS later this year.

Antares has been developed by the Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC).
The Dulles-based company is one of a number of commercial outfits that have partnered with the US space agency (Nasa) to create cheaper technologies for getting payloads and astronauts into orbit.

The agency has so far invested some $275m (£180m) in OSC to help it advance its rocket and cargo-vessel concepts.
A contract worth $1.9bn (£1.2bn), covering eight re-supply missions to the station, will be triggered once the company has satisfactorily demonstrated its designs.

Sunday's test-flight required the two-stage Antares rocket raise itself to an altitude of about 255km where it jettisoned a dummy payload.

That 3.8-tonne test mass was intended to simulate the Cygnus cargo ship, which will make its maiden outing on the next launch of the rocket.

Orbital is an established Nasa contractor, which has been building satellites and smaller rockets for more than 30 years.
The company was chosen by the agency to pick up some of the ISS servicing capability lost by America when it retired its space shuttles two years ago.