The first of the eight contracted launches of the Cygnus cargo freighter by the Antares rocket, which is made in cooperation with Ukraine, to deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) has been scheduled for December, Spaceflightnow reported.

According to the report, the first operational flight of the Cygnus spacecraft developed by Orbital Sciences is to take place on December 8.

Developed by Thales Alenia Space for Orbital Sciences Corporation, the Cygnus spacecraft was launched on September 18 by an Antares rocket at 1758 Kyiv time from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as a part of the demonstration launch.

This demonstration mission is carrying 700 kg of cargo to the ISS. The spacecraft is to be docked to the International Space station until October 24, then it will be loaded with waste and sent back towards Earth.

Orbital Science Corp earlier said that under the $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA, cargo delivery missions to the ISS will deliver approximately 20,000 kilograms of cargo to the ISS over eight missions through 2016.

Ukraine's Pivdenne design bureau and Pivdenmash signed a contract with Orbital Science Corp in 2008 for the period until 2019 to design and produce the first stage of the Antares rocket to deliver cargo to the ISS. Open sources said the new rocket would bring cargos of up to seven tonnes to low orbit.

Ukraine designed and produced the first stage, while the U.S. partner provided the second stage, the ground infrastructure and marketing. NASA contributed funds.

The Antares launch vehicle is powered by a NK-33 engine designed for the heavy-lift N-1 rocket. The N-1 project was closed down together with the Soviet lunar program in the 1970s. The United States has bought about 40 engines from Russia so far.

The first launch of the Antares rocket was made from Wallops space center in the U.S. on April 22, 2013.