On Sunday, private spaceflight company Orbital ATK returned its Cygnus cargo ship to flight with a superb afternoon launch after a year’s gap. It has launched essential supplies and NASA gear to the International Space Station.

Following a three-day delay caused due to bad weather, the unmanned Cygnus spacecraft blasted off from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:44 pm EST on Sunday.

The liftoff has marked NASA’s first resupply mission by Orbital ATK since the loss of its previous Cygnus vehicle and Antares rocket in October last year. The vehicle will arrive at the space station on Thursday, and is likely to deliver roughly 4 tons of supplies, like a life sciences facility, Microsoft HoloLens sets, microsatellite launcher and other tools.

Post last year’s rocket failure, Orbital ATK succeeded in mounting a second supply mission quite quickly by coming in partnership with the US launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA), provider of Atlas V rocket that lifted Cygnus into space on the evening of December 6.

It is a very significant mission mainly because last year, there were two other delivery failures. One mission failed in June by rival US Company SpaceX and other by Russia's Federal Space Agency in April.

The space station’s astronauts were able to witness the launch from their vantage point in orbit. They even captured an amazing view of the liftoff. After the launch, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, commander of the station's six-man crew, wrote on Twitter, “Caught something good on the horizon. #Cygnus at #sunset on its way to @space_station! #YearInSpace”.