The Ukrainian-American medium-class rocket Antares on August 11 successfully launched a spacecraft with cargo for the International Space Station (ISS) into orbit, this is the second successful launch this year, the Ministry of Strategic Industries said on its website.

The agency noted that the first stage of the rocket was manufactured in Ukraine by order of the main developer of the launch vehicle - Northrop Grumman Corporation.

The developer of the main design of the first stage was Pivdenne design bureau, it was manufactured by Pivdenmash jointly with the Ukrainian enterprises Hartron-ARKOS (Kharkiv), Kyivprylad, Hartron-UCOM (Zaporizhia), Chernihiv Plant of Radio Equipment, and RAPID (Chernihiv).

The ministry clarified that the launch vehicle launched into orbit an automatic cargo transport vehicle Cygnus, on board of which 3,724 kg of NASA payload for the ISS.

Deputy Prime Minister – Minister for Strategic Industries Oleh Urusky recalled that since 2013, the Antares launch vehicle has already made 15 launches, 14 of which have been successful.

"The Antares project is one of the brightest examples of successful cooperation between Ukrainian and American engineers who managed to quickly create a reliable launch vehicle for delivering payload to the ISS," Urusky said.