The private space industry received a setback last night when Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket exploded shortly after launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
The rocket was carrying a Cygnus capsule, full of over 5,000 pounds worth of supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). Fortunately, there were no humans aboard.
The rocket launched at 6:22 p.m. EST, and exploded in the air just a few seconds after that into a massive fireball.
But why did the rocket explode? It's far too early for answers, especially considering that before launch, Orbital Sciences noticed no problems with the rocket. However, shortly after ignition, those watching the launch knew something was wrong.
"As the vehicle was climbing off the pad, there was something trailing - a smoke and fire plume from the rocket itself - trailing from the rocket all the way up," says collectSpace.com's Robert Pearlman, who watched the launch from a few miles away. "As it cleared the top of the water tower, there was a clear break-apart, and the booster's integrity failed."
Pearlman reported witnessing the resulting fireball, followed by the sound of a huge explosion. Parts flew across the area as the rocket fell back to the launch pad, exploding again and setting the area on fire.
The rocket was carrying scientific experiments, supplies, food, tools and books to astronauts on the ISS. However, NASA assures the public that the ISS will not run out of supplies anytime soon. Today, a Russian resupply spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan, and in December, SpaceX will launch a rocket with supplies. Even without these two additional resupply missions, though, the ISS has enough food to last through March 2015.
So what happens now? While Orbital Sciences, NASA and the FAA investigate the site of the crash, they urge the public to stay away from any debris. Although there are those that might want souvenirs, agencies warn that taking anything away from the crash site could not only impede the investigation, but also be dangerous.
"I do want to caution the public ... this is an accident site and it's a rocket and it had a lot of hazardous materials on board that people should not be looking for or wanting to collect souvenirs over," says Frank Culbertson, executive vice president at Orbital Sciences. "If you find anything that washes ashore in the local area or came down in your farm or in your yard, please make sure that you will call .... local authorities."
Anyone who comes across debris should call the incident response team at (757) 824-1295.
As a result of the launch failure, Orbital Science scheduled a conference call with its financial analysts and investors for later today.
