All Systems 'A Go' For Demonstration Mission to International Space Station

Orbital Science managers and NASA officials gave the green light for Wednesday's launch of the private company's Cygnus spacecraft which is set to perform a demonstration resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Should all go well, Orbital Science will become the second company to transport cargo to the orbiting lab after Elon Musk's SpaceX.

"When two companies have done it, it will prove that we have an industry, not just one success," James Muncy, a commercial space policy consultant, told USA Today. "Spaceflight is hard. It's really important not to crash a spacecraft into the space station."

So hard, in fact, that at times it appeared as though NASA might never see the fulfillment of its $1.9 billion deal with the company. After more than a year of delays, however, the Antares rocket, designed to launch the Cygnus spacecraft into orbit, rolled out onto its Virginia launch pad in preparation of a series of test launches.

"After its flawless inaugural flight in April, we have been actively preparing for this next critical, much-anticipated milestone," David W. Thompson, Orbital's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"Antares is the largest and most complex rocket Orbital has ever produced," Thompson said. "Likewise, Cygnus is one of the most sophisticated spacecraft Orbital has developed and built. As an integral part of the Space Station program, it meets NASA's requirements for a human-rated level of safety."

Should the upcoming mission prove a success, the company will begin carrying out regularly scheduled missions for the space agency starting as early as December.

Orbital developed Cygnus under the company's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), a joint research and development initiative between the company and NASA. Launched in 2008, COTS was established to ensure the spacecraft met human-rated safety requirements needed for any ISS operations.

Antares, meanwhile, was developed privately by Orbital as a low-cost launch vehicle capable of hauling medium-class payloads through the Earth's atmosphere.

In all, Orbital is contracted to deliver roughly 20,000 kilograms of net cargo over a series of eight missions through 2016.