For Sports Stars, Instagram Dominates in Photo Engagement

Sam Laird2013-04-20 20:27:08 UTC

It wasn't so long ago, really, that Twitter became the go-to platform for sports stars looking to connect and interact with fans in new ways. Opinions, news, photos — athletes could share their lives with fans as never before.

That's still the case, but a comparison of photos posted by some of the sports world's biggest names reveals that onetime Twitter ally Instagram now dominates in photo-sharing engagement.

It sounds logical, given that Instagram is a photo-specific platform — and may have something to do with side effects of the two companies' increasingly hostile relationship. But a look at the data gives insight into the ever-evolving world of social media for big names.

For example, below is a photo posted recently by Kobe Bryant. It was his second Instagram post ever since joining earlier this month.

The post has since received 121,000 likes and more than 13,000 comments. Bryant has 610,000 Instagram followers, so that's a pretty high ratio. When he posted the Instagram link to Twitter (where he has 2.1 million followers), it was retweeted 12,500 times and favorited 5,300 times. On Facebook, where Bryant has 16 million fans, the post has received more than 450,000 likes.

Those high engagement numbers could have lots of explanations. A "like" is a much more passive action than retweeting a post to one's own Twitter timeline, for example. And Instagram killing its support for Twitter cards may have some effect on fans not clicking through links.

Nonetheless, the difference in engagement is interesting to note. Other Bryant posts on both Twitter and Instagram tell a similar story. Here's one in support of Boston terror victims (Twitter and Instagram), and a motivational post of a newspaper front page (Twitter and Instagram).

Global soccer star Cristano Ronaldo, meanwhile, often posts duplicate photos to Instagram and Twitter as well, but uses TwitPics instead of links to Instagram. But we see a similar story. Last weekend, for example, he posted a shot of his new signature shoe from Nike. On Instagram, where he has 750,000 followers, the photo was liked 113,000 times. On Twitter, where he has 17.5 million followers, it was retweeted 5,400 times and favorited 3,100 times.

More photo posts from the world's most famous athletes further bear out the trend. Here's Ronaldo after a big win (Instagram and Twitter), and hyping an important match (Instagram and Twitter). And here's LeBron James after a training session (Instagram and Twitter), sharing some crazy weather (Instagram and Twitter), and posting a shot from GQ magazine (Instagram and Twitter).

Why do you think sports stars see such higher photo engagement on Instagram? Let us know in the comments.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

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Cat Just Can't Quit Vacuum Cleaner

Chris Taylor2013-04-20 23:35:43 UTC

Oh, cats. Is there anything they won't lick? Apparently not, as this video — starring an unnamed Russian kitty — demonstrates.

Evidently lured in by something tasty on the edge of a powered-on vacuum cleaner hose, this fearless feline gets a surprise when the hose attaches itself to its face — and decides he wants more of that. In the end, the cat looks more like a college student with a dorm-room bong.

Remember, folks (and pets), don't try this at home.

Posted on Thursday, this clip has already racked up an impressive 2.2 million views on YouTube — which means it's got a shot at getting into the pantheon of all-time most-watched cat videos.

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Virginia Tech Shooting Survivor Launches Campus Safety App

Zoe Fox2013-04-20 16:29:44 UTC

Kristina Anderson was shot twice in the back and once in the foot on April 16, 2007, when a gunman massacred 11 members of her Virginia Tech French class. Thankful to have made a complete physical recovery since age 19, Anderson has since dedicated herself to starting a non-profit that promotes campus safety and speaking around the country about her experience.

"In the past year and a half, I've become more outspoken about what happened and the importance of campus safety," Anderson tells Mashable. "I didnt think more shootings would keep happening, but as they have I've become more involved."

Now she's helping launch an app she thinks has the power to make campuses, and eventually communities, safer. LiveSafe connects students and campus police in a two-way dialogue through a smartphone app. The hope is that this app will not only equip police to better respond to crime, but also to prevent it.

"LiveSafe is a two-way communication between campus police and students," Anderson says.

"Students are comfortable with smartphones; they use them to check in, order food and post pictures. We thought, we should also use our phones to make our communities safer."

"Students are comfortable with smartphones; they use them to check in, order food and post pictures. We thought, we should also use our phones to make our communities safer."

She and the LiveSafe team know that students hardly use the call feature on their smartphones, but they do text photos and videos. Therefore, students could be sending the police much more robust information. If a student gets robbed, you can ping the police using the app, sharing your exact location with a description of the crime — and you can remain anonymous when doing so.

With the app, the police can also communicate with students via push notifications, emails and voice, using either data or Wi-Fi connections. For Anderson, a notification from the campus police may have changed her fate six years ago. Neither she nor her classmates had any knowledge of the first shooting, which had occurred earlier in the morning at around 7:05 a.m., when the gunman entered their class at 9:30 a.m.

The shooter's first victim, Anderson explains, is a typical "test" shot. Many times a first attack will precede a much larger second one, so the shooter can gauge what he or she can get away with.

LiveSafe co-founder Shy Pahlevani, like Anderson, drew from personal experience when creating the app. Pahlevani was robbed and wanted to know why he couldn't immediately respond, so he and Samier Mansur built the app to empower people and communities in safety.

LiveSafe is currently beta testing on two campuses, North Carolina's Winthorp University and the University of New Hampshire. Winthorp has seen 6,500 downloads on its campus of just 6,000 students — the neighboring community has embraced the app, as well.

LiveSafe is currently only available for iOS, though an Android version is expected to roll out shortly. After receiving feedback from police chiefs, LiveSafe plans an open launch this summer.

Image by Tim Sloan/ AFP / Getty Images; Screenshots courtesy of LiveSafe

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Republicans Urge Obama to Label Boston Suspect 'Enemy Combatant'

Alex Fitzpatrick2013-04-20 15:43:18 UTC

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) posted a statement to Facebook Saturday morning urging the Obama administration to consider labeling Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston bombings who was apprehended alive Friday night, an enemy combatant. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) joined Graham's statement.

Tsarnaev became a naturalized American citizen on Sept. 11 of last year.

Tsarnaev became a naturalized American citizen on Sept. 11 of last year. Declaring him an enemy combatant would allow the government to interrogate him for intelligence beyond the degree allowed under normal circumstances. It would also move his case out of the domestic American legal justice system and most likely into a military tribunal.

"We should be focused on gathering intelligence from this suspect right now that can help our nation understand how this attack occurred and what may follow in the future," reads the lawmakers' statement. "That should be our focus, not a future domestic criminal trial that may take years to complete."

U.S. Attorney General Carmen Ortiz has already said that prosecutors opted for a public safety exemption which allows them to delay reading Tsarnaev his Miranda rights. Graham and the other lawmakers don't believe that to be the proper course of action.

" . . . We have concerns that limiting this investigation to 48 hours and exclusively relying on the public safety exception to Miranda, could very well be a national security mistake," reads the statement. "It could severely limit our ability to gather critical information about future attacks from this suspect."

Graham's statement echoed his previous comments made via Twitter Friday night as Tsarnaev was being confronted by police:

If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes.

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

If the #Boston suspect has ties to overseas terror organizations he could be treasure trove ofinformation.

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to "remain silent."

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

The Obama Administration needs to be contemplating these issues and should not rush into a bad decision.

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

Graham continued his arguments after Tsarnaev was taken into custody, arguing that labeling Tsarnaev an enemy combatant would be legal and that he could provide evidence which may stop some hypothetical upcoming attack:

Now that the suspect is in custody, the last thing I want is for him to remain silent. #Boston

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 20, 2013

We should be focused on preventing possible attacks over the coming hours and days.#Boston

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 20, 2013

The Law of War allows us to hold individual in this scenario as potential enemy combatant w/o Miranda warnings or appointment of counsel.

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 20, 2013

Critics immediately attacked Graham's statements, arguing that labeling Tsarnaev an enemy combatant would violate his constitutional rights:

@grahamblog You don't care who you trample all over, do you?

— Brett Blake (@papicek) April 19, 2013

@grahamblog he is anAmerican citizen. It is a crime. Sure, terror, but it is a capital crime.

— Richard Dedor (@RichardDedor) April 19, 2013

.@grahamblog you know there is more than one Amendment to the Constitution, right? It doesn't stop at the Second.

— gideonstrumpet (@gideonstrumpet) April 19, 2013

@grahamblog Did this suspect become an Citizen last year?If he did,I think you need to remember that precious Constitutional 5th amendment.

— Pnthrgrlgail (@Mama4Obama1) April 19, 2013

Several columnists have also argued against law enforcement's comparatively less controversial decision to delay reading Tsarnaev his Miranda rights. "But the next time you read about an abusive interrogation, or a wrongful conviction that resulted from a false confession, think about why we have Miranda in the first place. It’s to stop law enforcement authorities from committing abuses," wrote Emily Bazelon for Slate in a piece that's quickly circulating around Twitter Saturday morning.

Image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Pentagon Discloses Budget for Hacking Operations

for Nextgov 2013-04-20 15:15:07 UTC

The Pentagon has for the first time detailed $30 million in spending on Air Force cyberattack operations and significant new Army funding and staff needs for exploiting opponent computers.

Since 2011, top military brass have acknowledged the United States has the capability to hack back if threatened by adversaries in cyberspace. Now, the Defense Department is providing lawmakers and taxpayers with evidence of network assault programs to sustain funding, budget analysts say.

The Air Force in fiscal 2014 expects to spend $19.7 million on "offensive cyber operations," including research and development, operations, and training, according to budget documents circulated this week.

The service estimates needing $9.8 million for new tools to run those offensive cyber operations, including memory storage, local and long-haul communications, and "unique intelligence and analysis equipment," a spending justification stated.

The Air Force money also would cover products for certain defense operations, described as "counter information” capabilities that protect systems and content against deliberate or inadvertent intrusions, corruption and destruction.

In addition, the account would fund infrastructure for training, exercises and rehearsals "to support real-world contingency missions."

Air Force officials told Nextgov they chose to divulge this information because cyber offense will be a standard line item from now on and the public needs to understand what it is paying for.

"We know the Air Force's capabilities in cyber are going to continue to be touchstones for the whole joint team, the whole of government and for the private sector," Air Force spokesman Maj. Eric Badger said. Cyber Command, for instance, is on track to install by fall a full mission force to deflect incoming assaults on networks powering energy, banking and other critical U.S. businesses.

The Air Force must explain why this additional money is necessary, at a time when the Pentagon is cutting back on other personnel and weapons.

"We are committed to maintaining the right balance of integrated cyber capabilities and forces that are organized, equipped and trained to successfully conduct operations in cyberspace. We're equally as committed to doing so in a way that's respectful of the taxpayers' dollar," Badger said.

Elsewhere in the Pentagon budget, the Army proposes hiring 65 new employees and spending more money — $4.9 million more — for "computer network exploitation" and "computer network attack" capabilities.

Some military spending analysts wonder whether the services are wasting money by duplicating hacking investments.

"Do we really want each service going off and developing their own capabilities for these threats?" questioned Todd Harrison, senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "How much redundancy are we building across the services in the areas of cyber? What is unique to the Army?"

It could be more economical for a single component to manage all cyberattack spending, he added.

"Maybe it's time to give Cyber Command more budget authority," Harrison said.

Other military experts said the services might be giving away these details to ward off potential foes on the Internet.

"For some time now, U.S. Cyber Command has advertised it is prepared to conduct full spectrum cyber operations," which include attacking adversary networks, said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap, a former deputy judge advocate general.

Dunlap, now executive director of Duke University's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, added, "It is pretty clear that the U.S. intends to convey the message that it is prepared to fight in cyberspace with cyber weapons."

As for signaling the Air Force’s cyber might with money, Badger said, "Operating with assurance in the cyber domain is a national security imperative,” but “rest assured, the cyber activities of the Department of Defense are always undertaken in accordance with existing policy and law and executed under specific authority."

Harrison quipped, "It’s probably more of a signaling to Congress."

Image via Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

This article originally published at Nextgov here

Topics: air force, Army, budget, cyberattacks, hacking, Pentagon, Politics, U.S., US Government, US & World Nextgov is a Mashable publishing partner that is the all-day technology resource for federal decision makers, delivering news, analysis and a nationwide community of expert voices on how technology and innovation are transforming government. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.

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World's Oldest Spacewalker Makes History at 59

for Space.com 2013-04-20 02:17:42 UTC

Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov made spaceflight history high above Earth on Friday when, at age 59, he became the oldest person ever to venture outside a spacecraft during a spacewalk.

Vinogradov, a veteran cosmonaut, took the seventh cosmic excursion in 16 years during Friday's spacewalk. He donned a bulky spacesuit and left the confines of the International Space Station just after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) to upgrade the orbiting lab with new experiments.

Vinogradov paired up with 41-year-old fellow cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, a first-time spacewalker but second-generation cosmonaut. Romanenko's father, former cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, logged more than 10 spacewalking hours in his career.

The spacewalkers were at times lighthearted during the more-than-six-hour job.

"Nobody took a photo of me," Romanenko jokingly protested aftering they used a camera to take pictures outside the lab. "How can it be like that? Please take a photo of me, Pavel."

Vinogradov and Romanenko's primary objective was to install a new Russian experiment called Obstanovka, which will measure charged particles interact with a variety of materials kept outside of the space station. Obstanovka could offer scientists new insights about how space weather affects the ionosphere, an active region of the Earth's atmosphere, NASA officials explained in a spacewalk description.

The pair also retrieved a Biorisk canister, an experiment that measures the effects of bacteria and fungus on spacecraft materials, and prepared the outpost for the arrival of a robotic cargo ship later this year.

The spacewalkers are two members of the six-man Expedition 35 crew currently living aboard the International Space Station. The others are Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, and NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Chris Cassidy.

This is the 167th spacewalk dedicated to the construction and upkeep of the International Space Station, which was built by five different space agencies representing 15 countries. Construction of the $100 billion space station began in 1998, and it has been permanently staffed with rotating crews since 2000. It is roughly the size of a five-bedroom house with a wingspan the size of a football field.

Image courtesy of NASA

This article originally published at Space.com here

Topics: astronauts, International Space Station, NASA, space, US & World, World Space.com is a Mashable publishing partner that is the world's No. 1 source for news of astronomy, skywatching, space exploration, commercial spaceflight and related technologies. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.

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The Man Who Makes Animals Talk in All Caps

Chona Kasinger2013-04-20 22:32:40 UTC

Chona Kasinger is a freelance photographer and writer based in Seattle. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, MTV Hive, Marie Claire and The Huffington Post. View her website at chonakasinger.com.

Animals Talking in All Caps is exactly what it sounds like: photos of animals paired with tongue-in-cheek dialogue. Capitalizing on the virality of Tumblr, Justin Valmassoi, runs ATIAC for its audience of well over 100,000 followers.

Occasionally relatable and always witty, ATIAC appeals to both animal lovers and Tumblr users in search of a hearty chuckle. Essentially more refined versions of the Lolcat meme, Valmassoi’s posts often mock societal norms. Sheer silliness and carefully curated photos has proved a winning combination, earning him both a small army of fans and book deal.

“People who were raised by wolves haven't seen half as many wolves as I have," Valmassoi says.

Despite the sheer magnitude of Kookaburras, Orangutans and Weimaraners he has captioned over the years, Valmassoi has never actually been to a zoo. Yet we find ourselves nestled away at the Woodland Park Zoo, in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood, where we discuss hippopotamuses, Creative Commons and his upcoming book (Aug. 2013, Crown/Random House). And of course, we snapped photos in real time for ATIAC.

When did you first have the idea of pairing animal photos with
captions?

I guess the first one was in 2009, maybe? I think everyone with a Tumblr has captioned an animal at some point, though. It's just one of those things that happens when you're not paying attention. I made a few more over the next year or so, mostly to entertain my friend Stacey. When I moved to Seattle in 2011 I collected them all in one spot at her request, then made a few more because I didn't go out much, and that was the entirety of how ATIAC came about. Just a compilation of random half-jokes that snowballed into something much bigger. I certainly never intended to do it full-time. I was just really bored and about 2,500 miles away from all my friends.

What cues in animal photos do you read the most for dialogue?

I really like body language and facial expressions. There are a lot of amusing animal pictures on the Internet (obviously), but a ton of them are contrived or really blatantly weird. I prefer normal photos of normal animals pulling really human faces (exasperation, inebriation, contempt) or doing things with their bodies that imply non-traditional animal behavior (waving, pointing, acting sexy).

I'm not saying I've never used a ferret hugging a vibrator, but I prefer a couple of otters that look like they’re arguing or a praying mantis with a highly sassy stance.

From where do you pull animal images the most?

I get almost everything from Tumblr, either via submissions from readers or from wildlife/nature-themed blogs. I think Animals-Animals-Animals, rhamphoteca and getawildlife are my top three sources of images, mostly because they have a good eye for my kind of stuff, but also because they all do a very good job of linking to the photographers' websites.

MARTHA WANTED ME TO COME BY AND TELL YOU THE BARBECUE IS CANCELED.

What is your process of sourcing the images going into your book, and can you tell us a little bit about the implications of crediting photographers for their work?

That was the worst part of the whole thing, and a large part of why I like the aforementioned animal/nature blogs. I basically had to sit at my desk for, like, 11 hours a day every day for a couple of months and plug images into Google's image search, then sift through literally thousands of results trying to find the highest resolution or the largest image, in an attempt to trace it back to the source.

Contrary to popular opinion I am really shit at the Internet and I'd never had to do that before, so it was a long and kind of suicide-inducing learning process. Once I found the original I had to figure out the photographer's contact info, then email or call them, explain what I was doing and ask for permission. A ton of them were great and very excited; a few were mad that I had used their stuff on ATIAC without permission (which necessitated explaining just how many uncredited photos are floating around Tumblr, and how hard I had to work just to find their Flickr). And most of the people I tried to contact never got back to me, or had died, or at least forgot to update their info for a few years, so their pictures won't be in the book.

I also asked for submissions from readers who like to photograph things, and I got quite a few from that, which was nice — much easier than months of fruitless googling.

I think there's a definite sense of communal ownership that comes with the "digital age" ... everyone thinks that anything they find on the Internet half belongs to them.

I think there's a definite sense of communal ownership that comes with the "digital age" ... everyone thinks that anything they find on the Internet half belongs to them. But after talking to a couple hundred photographers, I can definitely tell you that's one profession who, collectively, would really like people to at least take five seconds to link to their work. It turns out that a couple of the people whose stuff will be in the ATIAC book have taken a ton of my favorite animal photos from the past couple years, and I had no idea who they were. I can see how that would be really, really frustrating: to find out that your work is really popular or at least well-liked and has been reblogged around Tumblr 62,385,689,432,658,314 times — and nobody knows it's yours.

What difficulties have you encountered in transitioning from ATIAC’s online medium to the published world?

I've lost 15 pounds and grown a beard. I think I have an ulcer. My hair is out of control and I think it makes the people at 7-Eleven a little afraid of me.

Other than that, just the usual "creative vs. accounts" stuff you always hear about. Inane as the premise of ATIAC may be, I still have an image of it in my head, and it maintains a certain artistic integrity. Once you're in the machine, though, all of that goes right out the window. Giving up creative control of something you've done, for you, for a very long time, is never easy, I don't think. For instance, I always wanted the cover to look like this:

To me that's a very funny seven-layer joke — people could read it on the train and nobody would make fun of them. But it will end up having an animal photo on the cover and probably a font that makes me want to throw bleach in my eyes. Because it has to appeal to the widest possible range of people (or some lie that people who like selling things tell themselves), so my dreams mean nothing and I probably won't like looking at my own book.

Also, just the reality of producing content on demand, under deadline, is a lot harder than most people realize. If I hadn't had to do all the permissions/photo hunting/organization, it probably wouldn't have been a problem, but doing all that while coming up with good captions, plus cranking them out for the Tumblr itself (I post quite regularly) at the same time ... well, look at my beard thing. Look at my skeleton body and horrible hair. I'm a wreck.

What can we expect to see in the ATIAC book?

Since the "It's just what it sounds like" tagline has been there from the get- go, I kept it pretty simple. It's basically just a coffee table version of the website, so if anyone was worried that it would have interactive 3D QR stuff or pop-up photos with holographic word balloons, you can rest easy. (If you were hoping it would have those things, I'm sorry.) It's about 50/50 old and new content. Some fan favorites, some personal favorites, some slightly reworked captions paired with new photos and a bunch of shiny new entries that will be ... whatever it is that I do, I guess. New pairings of mildly absurd or occasionally poignant text with very sexy images of expressive animals and insects.

What advice do you have for other creatives hoping to take their work from the web to the printing press?

Always ask for full creative control of the cover. Always!

Also, I guess it would help to think about all of the aspects of your work that function well because they're online, and then figure out if they translate to print media or will have a similar audience once it's a book. Some stuff will probably have to go. Some other things will need to be added. Print and digital are two totally different realms that don't necessarily overlap well, so it's important to have a pretty solid idea of what it will be when it's in someone's hand instead of on their screen.

Do you have any vision of ATIAC beyond a book? How do you see this project evolving?

To be honest, I just want a vacation. I can't even tell you how many animal photos I have seen in the past two years.

People who were raised by wolves haven't seen half as many wolves as I have.

People who were raised by wolves haven't seen half as many wolves as I have. I'm also kind of scatterbrained, and tend to have four or five things going at once. I'm a writer upon occasion (in lowercase, and without pictures) and I make 'zines a lot. I'd like to keep moving from project to project while my brain is angled toward each one. ATIAC is probably the longest I've spent immersed in one thing.

I also got married in April of 2012 to a beautiful, sarcastic Scottish woman (our wedding and visa application was actually partially funded by ATIAC reader donations last Christmas), so I'm trying very hard to move to Glasgow and start a proper life with her. That's the most pressing thing on my plate of pressing things right now. The whole book process has been done alongside the whole visa application process, which I'm sure is a huge contributing factor to my horrid stomach ailments and atrocious sleep schedule. So whatever I do next, I'm hoping to do it from the UK.

Who knows, though. I might just end up doing Animals Talking In All British Accents or something. I just kind of follow whatever weird path life happens to present me, which is how I ended up standing at the zoo with you today.

What is your spirit animal?

PJ Harvey? Tavi Gevinson? That okapi that got to meet Ryan Gosling when he was filming Ides of March? I have no idea.

This story was originally produced for Tumblr Storyboard.

Images courtesy of Animals Talking in All Caps, via Flickr, @spacesheep, Endless Loop Photography

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Antares: Private Rocket Launching on First Flight Saturday

for Space.com 2013-04-20 19:11:46 UTC

Antares, a new American rocket designed to fly cargo missions to the International Space Station for NASA, is poised to make its launch debut from the U.S. East Coast today (April 20) after a three-day delay.

The private Antares rocket, built by the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp., is set to launch from a new seaside pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.. The critical test flight has been delayed since Wednesday (April 17). Liftoff is set for 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT).

You can watch the Antares rocket launch live on SPACE.com beginning 4:30 p.m. ET (2030 GMT), courtesy of a NASA TV webcast. Weather permitting, the rocket's ascent toward space may even be visible from a wide swath of the U.S. East Coast from Portland, Maine, to Charleston, S.C., according to an Orbital visibility map.

The Antares rocket is designed to launch Orbital's new unmanned Cygnus spacecraft on cargo missions to the International Space Station under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA. Under the deal, the Dulles, Va.-based Orbital has pledge to launch at least eight Cygnus flights using Antares to deliver a total of 20 tons of cargo to the station through 2016.

But first, Orbital officials want to be sure the two-stage rocket can perform as expected. That's where today's test launch, called the Antares A-ONE mission, comes in.

Orbital is launching a full Antares rocket topped with a cylindrical dummy payload that mimics the shape and weight of the Cygnus spacecraft. If all goes well, the rocket will blast off at 5 p.m. EDT and reach orbit about 10 minutes later to place the Cygnus mass simulator in orbit.

Orbital initially tried to launch the Antares rocket on Wednesday (April 17), but a data cable separated from the booster earlier than expected minutes before liftoff. The cable relays vital commands from Orbital's launch control center to the Antares rocket's computer brain, so engineers wanted to be sure the rocket was in pristine shape to fly. A simple fix — adding some extra slack in the cable — was made to clear the way for today's launch attempt.

Orbital officials also opted to skip a Friday launch attempt because of dismal weather forecasts, but conditions at launch time today on Wallops Island are expected to be favorable.

The 13-story Antares rocket is the largest booster ever to launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, which has long been the home of NASA's small sounding rocket launches and balloon science program. The rocket will lift off from Pad 0A, a new launch pad operated by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and overseen by the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority.

Orbital Sciences is one of two U.S. companies that have contracts with NASA to provide commercial cargo deliveries to the International Space Station using robotic spacecraft. The other firm is Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif.

SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to fly at least 12 cargo delivery missions to the space station using its Falcon 9 rockets and robotic Dragon space capsules. The company launched its first test flight to the station in May 2012 and has flown two official cargo deliveries since then.

With the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA is relying on private spacecraft like those built by Orbital and SpaceX not only to keep the space station stocked with supplies, but eventually to ferry American astronauts to and from the orbiting lab.

If you live near the Wallops Island area in Virginia and want to watch today's launch attempt, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Visitors Center is open to the public. The launch can also be viewed from the nearby Assateague National Seashore.

Photo courtesy NASA, Bill Ingalls

This article originally published at Space.com here

Topics: Antares, NASA, space, Tech, U.S., World Space.com is a Mashable publishing partner that is the world's No. 1 source for news of astronomy, skywatching, space exploration, commercial spaceflight and related technologies. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.

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