Countdown for Antares Launch Starting Now 4:30 EST: Orbit.

[Rockhem]

The countdown starts right now! the antares is doing its first test flight to orbit.

right here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html\

edit: Orbit

Edited April 21, 2013 by Rockhem

[Kryten]

About ten minutes left, basically no chance of scrub at this point.

[ForumHelper]

Good luck Antares!

[Kryten]

One minute

[Rockhem]

That was a nice launch!

[Kryten]

A good day for Ukrainian engineering.

[Exoscientist]

Congrats to Orbital Sciences and NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services(COTS) program!

Bob Clark

[okan170]

And we welcome the Antares launch vehicle into the family of orbit-capable launch vehicles! They should get a muffin basket for induction into the club!

[AlexL]

I just saw the launch on youtube, awesome stuff...

Though from my KSP experience I was not expecting to see the first stage decoupler powered by springs rather than explosives

[Kryten]

All three of the phonesat secondary payloads have been confirmed to be functional.

[Crush]

Am I the only one who thinks that the Antares might be one of the most ugly rockets ever built?

[Ted]

I wouldn't say that it is definitively ugly, but it's definitely different looking and the lack of fins makes it look a tad odd. Then again, I don't think they design rockets to be aesthetically pleasing.

[Nibb31]

It looks simple and cheap, which is basically what it was designed to be. I find that quite elegant.

[Scotius]

I second that. It climbed into orbit exactly as intended, and without a hitch - pretty good for first real test flight. It's a workhorse, not an "living investment" horse - it doesn't have to look good, but get the job done.

[Latcarf]

I just saw the launch on youtube, awesome stuff...

Though from my KSP experience I was not expecting to see the first stage decoupler powered by springs rather than explosives

I didn't notice that happening yesterday watching it live. The posted video has the view of the spring loaded stage separation at 4:33 (273s). Really quite beautiful.

[Kryten]

Video has now emerged of the cygnus mass simulator re-entering, pretty spectacular;