High winds push Orbital space launch bid to Sunday

High winds in Florida have pushed to Sunday Orbital ATK's launch of its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station, the latest in a series of delays due to weather.

The next launch bid will begin at 4:44 pm (2144 GMT) on Sunday, with the opening of a 30-minute launch window, NASA said.

Strong winds also delayed Friday's attempt, and rainy weather postponed the initial launch bid on Thursday.

Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to supply astronauts at the orbiting outpost but has not sent any cargo in more than a year because of an Antares rocket explosion in October 2014 that destroyed its cargo ship and the thousands of pounds of supplies on board.

The accident was blamed on a failure in the decades-old Ukrainian-made engine, which had been reconditioned for use.

This time, Orbital ATK is relying on an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance to propel the cargo ship to low-Earth orbit.

The cargo ship is loaded with 7,300 pounds (3,300 kilograms) of food, science experiments, and other supplies.