Nasa is planning to start a new cargo supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on 3 December aboard a Cygnus spacecraft, operated by Orbital ATK.
This will be the first launch of an enhanced Cygnus spacecraft to the station after the explosion of an Orbital ATK Antares rocket, which was scheduled to deliver cargos to the ISS last month.
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Minutes after launch, the Antares rocket exploded destroying both the third operational Cygnus and its supplies.
Orbital ATK will use a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket to send the commercial Cygnus cargo craft to the ISS.
Orbital human space-flight systems vice-president Frank DeMauro was quoted by The Monitor saying: "After the launch failure, our goal and what we will achieve starting again in December, was to continue delivering cargo to the space station.
"The first thing we determined was that Antares was going to get a different engine.
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By GlobalData"We also recognised that was going to take some time, and we wanted to get back to delivering cargo ahead of that."
The new Cygnus will carry more than 7,000lb of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory. It will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pad in Florida.
It will also deliver replacement cargo items such as a pair of Microsoft HoloLens, a safety jet pack astronauts wear during spacewalks known as SAFER, and high pressure nitrogen and oxygen tanks.
Nasa, under its Commercial Resupply Services contract, awarded the cargo supply contract to Orbital ATK and paid $1.9bn to carry out eight resupply missions.
