NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

[gold stinger]

News is still in development. Live camera feed of the aftermath is up on the main NASA website.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

The rocket in question that blew up was Cygnus CRS Orb-3. Info being collected & updated on wikipedia at an alarming rate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_CRS_Orb-3

Cygnus CRS Orb-3, also known as Orbital Sciences CRS Flight 3 or Orbital 3 (Orb-3), was the fourth planned flight of the Orbital Sciences' Cygnus automated cargo spacecraft, would have been its fourth flight to the International Space Station and was the fifth launch of the company's Antares launch vehicle. However, the launch was unsuccessful, with the Antares rocket suffering a failure and crashing back to the launch pad.

The mission was scheduled to launch on October 27, 2014, at 22:45 UTC, with rendezvous and berthing with the ISS early in the morning on November 2. The launch was scrubbed due to safety concerns of a boat entering the zone too close to the launch. A 24 hour delay was put in place, with the next launch opportunity scheduled for 22:22:38 UTC on October 28, 2014. This was the first night-time launch for both the Antares launcher and Cygnus spacecraft.

The Antares rocket carrying the Orb-3 Cygnus launched as scheduled on October 28, 2014, but suffered a catastrophic failure seconds after launch, falling back onto Pad 0A and exploding.

Orb-3 carried a variety of NASA-manifested payloads, some determined fairly late in the days before the launch. In addition, the Arkyd-3 satellite would have been transported to the ISS on this flight.

edit: video of the explosion as it happened has been uploaded to youtube.

[Xiz]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

Just leave the space stuff to Redbull, Nasa

(but really though... so sad...)

[ItsOnlyDanO]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

I just saw the footage of this

It all looks fine then welp it explodes, don't know what the cause is yet

[Fission]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

[Zageron]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

bird nest in the intake

but really, that sucks. o_o

[gold stinger]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

bird nest in the intake

sauce plese

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

oh those poor souls

[justin_ator]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

For anyone like me who wasn't able to watch the feed and wanted to see it

[choof]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

oh those poor souls

unmanned

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

unmanned

would i make such a comment if i thought it was manned

[choof]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

would i make such a comment if i thought it was manned

Jurugar[x|c]: down is for something existential

[gold stinger]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

mfw the director says not to speculate the issues & not to disclose info to media outlets.

the incident is already world news.

[gold stinger]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

media outlets are now picking up the info online. TV News stations are already reporting on the issue.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/10/28/breaking_antares_rocket_explodes_on_takeoff.html

time for speculation.

As launch expert Jonathan McDowell notes, the first stage is built by the Ukranian company Yuzhnoe and uses Aerojet AJ-26 engines which are Russian NK-33 engines. These are very old engines (built in the 1960s and 70s) that are refurbished. While it’s not known if these were the cause of the explosion, they’re an obvious bet and I’m sure will be the primary suspect in the investigation. A recent test of one engine ended in failure.

sticking around for a supposed News Conference to officially address the issue.

[dashoe93]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

This blows.

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: NASA rocket explodes 6 seconds after launch

This reminds me of the Columbia Disaster. It better not have been another case of engineers being ignored by big cheeses.