Antares Rocket Engine Test-Fired Before First Launch in March

The new Antares rocket, developed by Orbital Sciences, was fired at Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia. The "hot fire" test of the first stage involved igniting the Antares rocket's dual AJ26 rocket engines for 29 seconds, but while the rocket is securely attached to the launch pad, and served to verify the readiness of the fueling systems of the rocket's first-stage engines.

Antares is a new commercial two-stage launch vehicle designed to "provide responsive, low-cost, and reliable access to space for medium-class payloads weighing up to 6120 kg," according to Orbital Sciences Corp, which is currently developing the launcher to first demonstrate commercial re-supply of the International Space Station with the spacecraft Cygnus under a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract, similar to SpaceX with their Falcon rocket.

"A little more than one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we had a U.S company resupplying the International Space Station. Now, another is taking the next critical steps to launch from America's newest gateway to low-Earth Orbit. Today marks significant progress for Orbital, MARS and the NASA team," said Phil McAlister, the director of NASA's Commercial Spaceflight Development in a statement.

A demonstration flight of Antares and Cygnus to the space station is planned for later this year, and in the case of success Orbital will go on to launch eight planned cargo resupply flights to the ISS through NASA's $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with the company, again the same arrangement as NASA has with SpaceX.