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[b]Orbital working toward Friday Saturday Antares launch[/b] Orbital Sciences' Antares team has developed a go-forward plan to address the umbilical disconnect issue that resulted in Wednesday's (April 17) launch scrub. The team is currently working toward a next launch attempt Friday (April 19) Saturday (April 20) at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), weather permitting. During the initial countdown on Wednesday, with 12 minutes left in the count, flight controllers saw that an umbilical providing data, which connects the Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) to the upper stage of the rocket, became disconnected prior to the planned time. The team has determined the cause was a combination of slight hydraulic movement of the TEL and not enough slack left in the umbilical to allow for any additional or unplanned movement. Neither issue alone would have caused the umbilical disconnect, however, the combination resulted in the anomaly. Small adjustments are being made early today to both the hydraulics on the TEL and to the umbilical. "The good news is that this is a simple adjustment to the external support systems," said Frank Culbertson, Orbital's executive vice president and mission director for the Antares test flight. "Given that this is a first run for the rocket and the first time use of a new launch facility, the fact that all systems were performing as planned while the team proceeded through the pre-launch checklists is very encouraging. It speaks volumes about the quality of the work done by this team and our partners." The next launch attempt targeted for Friday Saturday is pending completion of the work at the pad and acceptable weather conditions.
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