Orbital Sciences will purchase a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 booster to launch its next International Space Station cargo ship for NASA after being sidelined by a rocket explosion in October.
A problem with the booster's refurbished Soviet-era engine caused Orbital's fifth Antares rocket launch to end just 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, on Oct. 28.
Though no one was aboard the rocket, it was loaded with more than 5,000 pounds of cargo for the space station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 260 miles above Earth.
Orbital said in November that it would speed up development of a previously planned Antares engine replacement and buy at least one rocket ride from another company to fulfill its contractual obligations to NASA.
Orbital said Tuesday it had selected United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket to fly one Cygnus cargo ship in late 2015. Terms of the deal have not been announced yet.
United Launch Alliance is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
"In formulating its go-forward plans, the company's primary objective is to fulfill its commitment to NASA for ISS cargo deliveries with high levels of safety and reliability and minimum disruption to schedules," the company said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Orbital is one of two companies hired by NASA to fly cargo to the ISS following the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011. Orbital and Space Exploration Technologies each plan to deliver about 40,000 pounds of cargo under contracts worth $1.9 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively.
Repairs to Antares launch pad and nearby facilities at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia should take about a year, according to NASA. Three Cygnus cargo ships are expected to launch from Virginia in 2016 on Orbital's updated Antares rocket.
A defective turbopump was likely the cause of the Oct. 28 Antares explosion.
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