It only took a matter of seconds. The fireball from the explosion could be seen from space. The facility was severely damaged and cars were torched. The Antares space launch that was to take supplies to the space station is gone.
Washingtonpost.com:
An unmanned rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up Tuesday evening a few seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Va.The Orbital Sciences rocket rose a short distance from the launchpad and then exploded in a ball of orange flames. Orbital Sciences is a private company based in Dulles, Va.
NASA confirmed that all personnel were accounted for and that there were no injuries in the explosion. However, it appeared that the explosion caused damage on the ground. Emergency personnel from nearby Virginia jurisdictions, including Chincoteague, were sent to the scene.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
At a news conference Tuesday evening, NASA described the explosion as a “catastrophic anomaly.”
At liftoff, rockets are filled with highly volatile fuel, including kerosene, and flight is considered risky.
Officials reiterated that any specific determination of what went wrong would take time. Witness accounts of what happened varied somewhat. Some said that the rocket appeared to catch fire within seconds after liftoff, then fell back to the launchpad and exploded.
The explosion directed new attention to the commercial space flight program. In contrast to earlier years, the commercial program involves craft that are built and operated by private companies.
Officials indicated Tuesday night that they were determined to continue with the program. An Orbital Sciences official said that when the cause is identified, “we will begin the necessary work to return to flight.”
The Wallops Island space facility has been operational since the 40’s. They darn near burnt it down last night. I suppose each and every one of us breathed a sigh of relief remembering the explosion of the Challenger where all 7 crew members perished. This space vehicle was unmanned. Thank goodness!
Gotta admit….as Cletus would say….”THAT BLOWED UP REEEEEAAL GOOD.”
Maybe we should be using American engines. Russian tech can be …. problematic.
Clever terminology used by Orbital executive to describe the explosion: “There was some ‘disassembly’ of the first stage…
“On Tuesday night, an Orbital executive complained there aren’t more modern alternatives to the decades-old engines, the Guardian reported. “When you look at it there are not many other options around the world in terms of using power plants of this size,” said Frank Culbertson, the company’s executive vice president. “Certainly not in this country, unfortunately.” The first issues with the rocket appeared to arise, he said, during the rocket’s first stage, when it was powered by Soviet engines. “The ascent stopped [and] there was some, let’s say, disassembly of the first stage, after which it fell to Earth,” he said.”
He claims there are no other engine options for these rockets. Why aren’t we using the Lockheed Martin/Boeing Delta IV rockets? Or the The SpaceX Falcon 9v1.1?
The Russians abandoned the engines being used by Orbital because they kept blowing up–duh!
Well, in all fairness to NASA, with Muslim outreach being their #1 priority they probably don’t have the time to source the best engines available. Thus your left with them using faulty Russian engines that not even the Russians use.
And to think, we spent all that money on SDI when Russian engineering was our best defense against Soviet ICBMs.
@Mom
Mom, you are closer to the truth than you think. Supposedly DOD had estimates of what percentage of Soviet ICBMs would fail and used that to calculate the effective difference between our missile stockpiles. (ie. our failure rate was something like 5% vs. 30% for the Soviets so their having 1300 missiles was effectively the same as having about 1000)
I really hope they are able to repair the facility at Wallops Island quickly. If it’s out of action for several years, it may miss out on the next generation of rockets coming out. There are a lot of launch facilities that are being built or expanded right now and Wallops Island just got blasted back to square one.
@Mom
Heh… if we had only known THEN how bad they were.
Was Putin smiling when that sales contract passed through his office?
Wolve – I think the engines were acquire from Ukrainian, as opposed to Russian, sources (I don’t know that for certain, but when I was at the facility for the first Antares launch, I met some Ukrainian engineers who were working on the project. The advantage was that these were surplus engines, acquired very cheaply. Like a lot of Soviet-era military or dual-use hardware, they lacked sophistication, but had some offsetting advantages re cost, robustness, and simplicity. The Ukrainians didn’t need them. Orbital saw a way to make some money. Win-win until Tuesday. There have been several previous successful launches. I watched one of them from the facility (that was extremely interesting) and watched another from the park near my house in Fairfax County, roughly 110 air miles away.
From the looks of it, there probably is a lot of damage to the launch facility. There were some specialized features there that supported the rocket, ran fuel to it while on the pad, and elevated it into vertical position. The Commonwealth of Virginia had a stake in the facility. Funding sources may be hard to come by for replacement investment.
Virgin Galactic test flight also ended in a crash, with pilot ejecting and co-pilot killed. Things are not going so good for the private space ventures so far. Reminds me of the disaster for the first U.S. try on the launch pad after the humiliation of Sputnik.
NASA sure seemed to have better luck than these private ventures.
I resent the space program ending. It seemed to be a part of national pride. Typical cheaping out on something good.
@Moon-howler
NASA and the Air Force lost quite a few aircraft and spacecraft before they got it right.
Some along the way also but private industry has sure had a rough week. 2 major accidents that close together simply doesn’t look good.
Safe Is Not an Option
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0989135519/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0989135519&linkCode=as2&tag=insta0c-20&linkId=A7TIQXCWSU3UC2NE
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/news/analysis-why-companies-such-as-virgin-galactic-and-orbital-take-risks-and-endure-losses-17375933?click=pm_news
Another bit about the spaceships
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/11/01/what-happened-to-virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo/