Orbital Sciences completes the first launch of its Antares rocket

Orbital Sciences completed its first launch of the Antares rocket - as well as the first launch from its new facilities at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, VA.

The launch took place on April 21st at 5:00 PM local time (EDT).

This launch is the first step towards demonstrating Orbital's capability to resupply the International Space Station (ISS), for which it will use the company's Cygnus spacecraft.  Orbital Sciences is one of the two companies providing services under  NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, SpaceX being the other.

Once the Cygnus spacecraft has completed its demo missions, orbital will begin fulfilling its contract with NASA is for eight resupply missions, which are anticipated to start by the end of this year (2013).