# List of Antares launches

Antares has been launched a total of 18 times since April 2013. All of the launches have been successful, except for Cygnus CRS Orb-3.

## About the Antares

Antares (/ænˈtɑːriːz/), known during early development as Taurus II, is an expendable launch system developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (later part of Northrop Grumman) and the Pivdenne Design Bureau to launch the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's COTS and CRS programs. Able to launch payloads heavier than 8,000 kg (18,000 lb) into low Earth orbit, Antares is the largest rocket operated by Northrop Grumman. Antares launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and made its inaugural flight on April 21, 2013. Antares 100 was retired in 2014 and series 200 was retired in 2023 due to component unavailability. As of January 2024 Antares 300 is under development.
NASA awarded Orbital a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Space Act Agreement (SAA) in 2008 to demonstrate delivery of cargo to the International Space Station. Orbital (and later Northrop Grumman) used Antares to launch its Cygnus spacecraft for these missions. As of August 2023 it has only been used for Cygnus launches to the ISS, despite it being intended for commercial launches. Originally designated the Taurus II, Orbital Sciences renamed the vehicle Antares, after the star of the same name, on December 12, 2011.
Out of 18 total launches, Antares has suffered one failure. During the fifth launch on October 28, 2014, the rocket failed catastrophically, and the vehicle and payload were destroyed. The rocket's first-stage engines were identified as the cause for the failure. A different engine was chosen for subsequent launches, and the rocket had a successful return to flight on October 17, 2016.
The Antares has flown two major design iterations, the 100 series and 200 series. Both series have used a Castor 30XL as an upper stage but have differed on the first stage. The 100 series used two Kerolox powered AJ26 engines in the first stage and launched successfully four times. The 100 series was retired following a launch failure in 2014. The 200 series which first flew in 2016 also featured a Kerolox first stage but instead used two RD-181 engines along with other minor upgrades. The 200 series future became uncertain following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Due to the first stage being produced in Ukraine and the engines in Russia, future production of the rocket was unable to be continued. As a result Northrop Grumman entered into an agreement with Firefly Aerospace to build the first stage of the Antares 300 series. Northrop also contracted with SpaceX for 3 Falcon 9 launches.

## Launch statistics
### Rocket configurations

* Antares 110
* Antares 120
* Antares 130
* Antares 230
* Antares 230+

### Launch outcomes

* Failure
* Partial failure
* Success
* Scheduled

### Operator

* Orbital Sciences
* Orbital ATK
* Northrop Grumman

## Past launches

| Flight No. | Date / time (UTC) | Rocket variant | Launch site | Payload, Spacecraft name | Payload mass | Orbit | Operator | Customer | Launch outcome |
| 1 | April 21, 2013 21:00 | Antares 110 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus Mass SimulatorDove 1AlexanderGrahamBell | — | LEO | Orbital Sciences Corporation | NASA (COTS) | Success |
| Antares A-ONE, Antares test flight, using a Castor 30A second stage and no third stage. |||||||||
| 2 | September 18, 2013 14:58 | Antares 110 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (standard) Orb-D1 G. David Low | 700 kg (1,543 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Orbital Sciences Corporation | NASA (COTS) | Success |
| Orbital Sciences COTS demonstration flight. First Antares mission with a real Cygnus capsule, first mission to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station, second launch of Antares. The rendezvous maneuver was delayed due to a computer data link problem, but the issue was resolved and berthing followed shortly thereafter. |||||||||
| 3 | January 9, 2014 18:07 | Antares 120 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (standard) CRS Orb-1 C. Gordon Fullerton | 1,260 kg (2,780 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Orbital Sciences Corporation | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| First Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) mission for Cygnus, and first Antares launch using the Castor 30B upper stage. |||||||||
| 4 | July 13, 2014 16:52 | Antares 120 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (standard) CRS Orb-2 Janice Voss | 1,494 kg (3,293 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Orbital Sciences Corporation | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| Spacecraft carried supplies for the ISS, including research equipment, crew provisions, hardware, and science experiments. |||||||||
| 5 | October 28, 2014 22:22 | Antares 130 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (standard) CRS Orb-3 Deke Slayton | 2,215 kg (4,883 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Orbital Sciences Corporation | NASA (CRS) | Failure |
| LOX turbopump failure T+6 seconds. Rocket fell back onto the pad and exploded. First Antares launch to use Castor 30XL upper stage. In addition to ISS supplies, payload included a Planetary Resources Arkyd-3 satellite and a NASA JPL/UT Austin CubeSat mission named RACE. |||||||||
| 6 | October 17, 2016 23:45 | Antares 230 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS OA-5 Alan G. Poindexter | 2,425 kg (5,346 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Orbital ATK | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| First launch of Enhanced Cygnus on Orbital's new Antares 230. |||||||||
| 7 | November 12, 2017 12:19 | Antares 230 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS OA-8E Gene Cernan | 3,338 kg (7,359 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Orbital ATK | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| 8 | May 21, 2018 08:44 | Antares 230 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS OA-9E J.R. Thompson | 3,350 kg (7,386 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Orbital ATK | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| Spacecraft carried ISS hardware, crew supplies, and scientific payloads, including the Cold Atom Lab and the Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing Technology experiment. The Cygnus also demonstrated boosting the station's orbital velocity for the first time, by 0.06 meter per second. |||||||||
| 9 | November 17, 2018 09:01 | Antares 230 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-10 John Young | 3,416 kg (7,531 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| Largest number of satellites launched on a single rocket (108). Cygnus NG-10, CHEFsat 2, Kicksat 2, 104 Sprite Chipsats (deployed from Kicksat 2), MYSAT 1. |||||||||
| 10 | April 17, 2019 20:46 | Antares 230 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-11 Roger Chaffee | 3,447 kg (7,600 lbs) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| Launched the last mission under the Commercial Resupply Services-1 for Cygnus. |||||||||
| 11 | November 2, 2019 13:59 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-12 Alan Bean | 3,728 kg (8,221 lbs) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| Cygnus NG-12 is the first mission under the NASA Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract. NG-12 is also the first to use upgraded launcher, Antares 230+. |||||||||
| 12 | February 15, 2020 20:21 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-13 Robert Lawrence, Jr. | 3,377 kg (7,445 lbs) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| 13 | October 3, 2020 01:16 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-14 Kalpana Chawla | 3,458 kg (7,624 lbs) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| Spacecraft carried ISS hardware, crew supplies, and scientific payloads, including a new toilet (Universal Waste Management System, UWMS), Ammonia Electrooxidation, radishes for Plant Habitat-02, drugs for targeted cancer treatments with Onco-Selectors, and a customized 360-degree camera to capture future spacewalks. |||||||||
| 14 | February 20, 2021 17:36 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-15 Katherine Johnson | 3,810 kg (8399 lbs) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| This mission carried over 8,000 pounds of cargo including roundworms to study muscle loss and the Spaceborne Computer 2, as well as an experiment to study the protein-based manufacturing of artificial retinas. |||||||||
| 15 | August 10, 2021 22:01 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-16 Ellison Onizuka | 3,723 kg (8210 lbs) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| 16 | February 19, 2022 17:40 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-17 Piers Sellers | 3,800 kg (8,400 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| 17 | November 7, 2022 10:32 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-18 Sally Ride | 3,652 kg (8,051 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| 18 | August 2, 2023 00:31 | Antares 230+ | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (enhanced) CRS NG-19 Laurel Clark | 3,729 kg (8,221 lb) | LEO (ISS) | Northrop Grumman | NASA (CRS) | Success |
| Final Antares 230+ launch. |||||||||
Note: Cygnus CRS OA-4, the first Enhanced Cygnus mission, and Cygnus OA-6 were propelled by Atlas V 401 launch vehicles while the new Antares 230 was in its final stages of development. Cygnus CRS OA-7 was also switched to an Atlas V 401 and launched on April 18, 2017

## Future launches

| Date / time (UTC) | Rocket variant | Launch site | Payload | Orbit | Customer |
| Q4 2025 | Antares 330 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (Mission B) CRS NG-23 | LEO (ISS) | NASA |
| First flight of the Antares 330. |||||
| 2026 | Antares 330 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (Mission B) CRS NG-24 | LEO (ISS) | NASA |
| Second flight of the Antares 330. |||||
| 2026 | Antares 330 | MARS, LP-0A | Cygnus (Mission B) CRS NG-25 | LEO (ISS) | NASA |
| Third flight of the Antares 330. |||||
Note: Cygnus NG-20 and Cygnus NG-21 were, and Cygnus NG-22 will be propelled by Falcon 9 Block 5 launch vehicles while the new Antares 330 is in development.