Rocket Bound For Space Station Explodes

[timmy]

An unmanned cargo rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded seconds after liftoff Tuesday night.

The Antares rocket, carrying 5,055 pounds of supplies, science experiments and equipment, lifted off on schedule at 6:22 p.m. Eastern time from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. No issues came up during the countdown.

But soon after it rose into the sky, there was a flash of an explosion, and the rocket fell back to the launching pad.

No one was injured, according to officials at Orbital Sciences Corp., which owned the rocket. With flames burning into the early evening, the launching facilities appeared to have been damaged significantly.

Orbital, a company based in Dulles, Virginia, first launched a 14-story-high Antares rocket last year, a demonstration flight to show NASA its capabilities. That was followed by two more flights carrying cargo to the space station, part of a program in which NASA has hired private companies to ferry cargo to the space station.

Tuesday's launch would have been the third of eight cargo missions under a $1.9 billion contract.

"We will conduct a thorough investigation immediately to determine the cause of this failure and what steps can be taken to avoid a repeat of this incident," Frank L. Culbertson Jr., Orbital's executive vice president, said in a statement. "As soon as we understand the cause, we will begin the necessary work to return to flight to support our customers and the nation's space program."

Orbital is one of two private companies to supply the space station. Space Explorations Corp. of Hawthorne, California, known as SpaceX, has successfully flown four cargo missions to the space station, the most recent mission ending Saturday.

The failure will not cause any immediate trouble for the space station. In 2011, a Russian supply ship failed to reach orbit; space station managers were able to adjust.

By hiring private companies, NASA hoped to reduce costs, improve efficiency and spur a new commercial space agency, and it has taken a similar approach toward launching its astronauts in the future.

Last month, NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to take astronauts to the space station beginning as early as 2017.

However, the failure of the Orbital rocket will likely raise questions about whether NASA has done enough to ensure the reliability of the rockets.

This Antares rocket carried a more powerful second-stage engine for the first time. The cargo spacecraft was to circle in orbit until Sunday before proceeding to the space station. The rocket was also carrying a satellite for Planetary Resources, a startup looking to develop technology for mining asteroids.

The launching was originally scheduled for Monday but was called off because of a boat offshore along the rocket's flight path. Under launch rules, that area must be cleared to ensure safety. 

© 2014, The New York Times News Service

[sigsegv]

sad ..