Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket will launch an unmanned Orb-3 spacecraft Monday night. This will become the company's third cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station.

The rocket will blast off at 6:45 P.M. EDT from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch will be visible in the sky on the U.S. east coast from Massachusetts to South Carolina.

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This space mission is part of a NASA US$1.9 million deal. The robotic spacecraft is expected to arrive at the ISS on November 2 carrying nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies.

The space agency announced on its website there is an expected 98 percent chance of favorable weather during launch.

The supplies ferried to the ISS will be part of new experiments that will be conducted on board the station. These space experiments will study and explore how humans can survive in deep space over long periods of time.

One experiment called "Drain Brain" will investigate how well blood can circulate from the brain to the heart in the absence of gravity.

This will alleviate and, hopefully, solve common neurological ailments such as migraines that astronauts experience in space. The results of this experiment will also shed light on how to treat serious neurological conditions on Earth such as Alzheimer's.

Other experiments will include student designed ones ranging from how pea shoots grow in space to the effect of microgravity on spoiled milk.

The Cygnus capsule will also record its re-entry on Earth and will wirelessly transmit data as the craft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.

Monday's launch will coincide with some heavy traffic at the ISS as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft also delivered supplies to the station last Saturday and on Wednesday, the Russian cargo ship Progress will arrive at the station.

The Antares rocket launch can be seen live online at Space.com starting at 5:45 P.M. EDT.

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