During August 2015, Orbital ATK was awarded two more cargo mission launches using their Cygnus cargo craft by NASA. The NASA CRS-1 contract extension to the original seven plus one optional (since converted to a full order) missions already contracted to fly cargo to the International Space Station was a surprise result of the delay in awarding the next round of commercial unmanned launches dubbed CRS-2. This leaves Orbital’s share of the CRS-1 programme at 10 resupply missions.
The new flights are expected to take place in late 2017 and early 2018. While Orbital ATK’s main Antares rocket system is laid up awaiting its engine change out after it was decided to no longer use the pair of AJ-26 converted NK-33 engines on its first stage (to be replaced by the RD-181), Orbital ATK has contracted to launch a Cygnus on an Atlas V launch vehicle in early December with a second Atlas/Cygnus flight to follow.
At the same time as the Orbital ATK extension award, SpaceX was awarded three more Dragon flights launched by Falcon 9 rockets to add to its original 12 missions in the CRS-1 contract bringing it up to 15 missions.
STORY CORRECED AND ADDED TO IN FEB 2016.
