Antares rocket, cargo ship bound for space station explode during launch

Published October 29, 2014 6:17am

(UPDATED 10 a.m. Wednesday) Orbital Sciences' Antares Rocket and unmanned Cygnus Cargo Ship that were to deliver supplies and experiments to the International Space Station exploded during launch Tuesday evening (Wednesday morning, PHL time), a NASA TV broadcast showed.

The Antares rocket blew up seconds after liftoff from a commercial launch pad in Virginia.

The 14-story rocket, built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp, bolted off its seaside launch pad at the Wallops Flight Facility at 6:22 p.m. It appeared to burst into flames moments later, then plunged to the ground in a huge ball of fire and smoke.

No injuries, critical cargo

NASA said there were no injuries. Orbital Sciences said in a statement: "We've confirmed that all personnel have been accounted for. We have no injuries in the operation today."

The six crew members in orbit aboard the space station - two NASA astronauts, one from the European Space Agency and three Russian cosmonauts - were informed of the accident, NASA spokesman Dan Huot said.

"There was no cargo that was absolutely critical" aboard Cygnus, NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier said.

The White House said President Barack Obama also was briefed.

The cause of the mishap was not immediately known, Huot said. He said there were no reports of any personnel in the vicinity of the explosion.

Launch had been delayed one day after a boat sailed into a restricted safety zone beneath the rocket's intended flight path.

Orbital Sciences

Orbital Sciences stock fell 15.5 percent to a two-month low of $25.65 in after-hours trading.

Virginia-based Orbital Sciences is one of two companies hired by NASA to fly cargo to the station after the space shuttles were retired. Tuesday's planned flight was to be the third of eight under the company's $1.9 billion contract with NASA.

The second U.S. supply line to the station is run by privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which is preparing for its fourth flight under a separate, $1.6 billion NASA contract.

Outfitted with a new, more powerful upper-stage engine, the Antares rocket launched on Tuesday carried a Cygnus spacecraft packed with 2,293 kg of supplies, science experiments and equipment, a 15 percent increase over previous missions.

Cygnus was to loiter in orbit until Nov. 2, then fly itself to the station so astronauts can use a robotic crane to snare the capsule and attach it to a berthing port. The station, a $100 billion research laboratory owned and operated by 15 nations, flies about 418 km above Earth.

Cygnus cargo

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) blog on the launch said the Cygnus cargo ship had nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments for the ISS.

On the cargo manifest was an investigation project of students of the Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart in Houston. The students wanted to know how pea shoots would grow in space.

"Pea shoots grow so quickly on Earth that they can be harvested in two to four weeks. They also contain high amounts of vitamins and minerals, making them a potential source of food on long-duration space missions," a post on the NASA blog said.

The project uses red and blue LED lights to promote pea shoot growth in a specialized chamber.

The Houston students wanted to "identify the best combinations of red and blue LED lights...by analyzing the plants’ mineral content upon return to Earth" of their experiment.

Also on the Cygnus ship was a cluster of 18 student led projects that are part of the "Yankee Clipper suite of research under the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP)."

"The studies investigate a range of topics from a crystal growth study that will enable students to learn more about how fluids act and form into crystals in the absence of gravity to how microgravity affect milk spoilage. Yankee Clipper is the eighth flight opportunity associated with the SSEP, an initiative of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education in partnership with NanoRacks," NASA said.

Another piece of cargo was a Reentry Breakup Recorder-W.

"REBR uses the flight-verified REBR data collection and transmission system to record data during the reentry and breakup of a vehicle from wireless sensors placed throughout the host vehicle, and return the data for analysis to validate reentry hazard prediction models," NASA said.

NASA also said the Cygnus craft had total cargo weighing 4,883 pounds consisting of:

Science investigations: 1,602.8 pounds
Crew supplies: 1,649 pounds
Flight crew equipment: 273.4 pounds
Food: 1,360.3 pounds
Flight procedures books: 15.4 pounds
Vehicle hardware: 1,404.3 pounds
Spacewalk equipment: 145.5 pounds
Computer resources: 81.6 pounds

— with Reuters/ELR/TJD, GMA News

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