Orbital Sciences Corp's spacecraft Cygnus lifted off from Virginia's eastern shore yesterday sending a freighter packed with food, scientific gear, flock of mini satellites and other things to the International Space Station (ISS).

It was strapped to a 13-storey high Antares rocket which is built using modified Russian NK-33 engines and after a 10-minute climb Cygnus was placed into its required intended orbit of 120 x 180 miles (190km x 290km) above Earth.

After it retired all its space shuttle task force NASA now depends largely on private companies to provide its astronauts with food and water as the International Space Station orbits the Earth.

Orbital is left with one more launch this year and is planning three more launches in 2015. It is one of two private spaceflight companies, which has resupply mission contracts with NASA, the other being SpaceX - Space Exploration Technologies owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

"Today's mission was the fourth successful launch of Antares in the past 15 months and the third deployment of Cygnus in less than year", said David W. Thompson, Orbital's president and CEO.

Along with food and scientific gear Cygnus is also carrying new type of clothing, which will be resistant to bacteria and odor. This means that if each astronaut exercises daily in orbit for two hours still they won't have to change their clothes frequently.

This particular launch was due back in June but was delayed due to various problems like additional engine inspections and bad weather at the Wallops Island launch site.