Antares A-ONE mission was the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation' Antares launch vehicle including the ascent to space and accurate delivery of a simulated payload, the Cygnus Mass Simulator (CMS), which was launched 21 April 2013.^[5] It was launched from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.^[5] The simulated payload simulates the mass of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft.^[5] This dummy payload was sent into an orbit of 240 km × 260 km (150 mi × 160 mi) with an orbital inclination of 51.6°, the same launch profile it will use for Orbital's upcoming cargo supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA.^[5]

This launch along with several other activities leading up to it, are paid milestones under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.^[6]

The primary payload was the Cygnus Mass Simulator. It had a height of 5.061 m (16.60 ft), a diameter of 2.896 m (9 ft 6.0 in) and a mass of 3,800 kg (8,400 lb).^[7] It was equipped with 22 accelerometers, 2 microphones, 12 digital thermometers, 24 thermocouples and 12 strain gages.^[7]

Four Spaceflight Industries Inc. CubeSat nanosatellites were deployed from the dummy payload.^[8]

The secondary payloads were four CubeSats that were deployed from the CMS.^[7] Three of them were PhoneSats, 1U CubeSats built by NASA's Ames Research Center.^[7] These were named Alexander, Graham and Bell, after the Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone.^[7] The purpose of these three satellites was to demonstrate the use of smartphones as avionics in CubeSats.^[7] They each had a mass of 1,124 kg (2,478 lb) and were powered by lithium batteries.^[7] The fourth nanosat was a 3U CubeSat, called Dove-1, built by Cosmogia Inc. It carried a "technology development Earth imagery experiment" using the Earth's magnetic field for attitude control.^[7][9]

• Lift off of the Antares launch vehicle occurs two seconds after the first stage engines are ignited
• The first stage engines shut off 228 seconds after lift-off
• At 233 seconds, the first stage separates from the second
• At 317 seconds, the payload fairing is jettisoned
• At 326 seconds, the second stage's engine is ignited
• At 481 seconds, the second stage is shut off
• At 601 seconds, the Cygnus Mass Simulator separates ^[5]

• Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit