Unmanned Antares rocket explodes after liftoff

[Grandlarousse]

Unmanned Antares rocket explodes after liftoff

The owners of the unmanned commercial supply ship that exploded Tuesday over a launchpad in Virginia warned people to keep away from potentially hazardous debris and promised to figure out what destroyed the rocket that was supposed to ferry cargo to the International Space Station.

No injuries were reported following the first catastrophic launch in NASA's commercial spaceflight effort.

The accident at Orbital Sciences Corp.'s launch complex at Wallops Island was sure to draw criticism over the space agency's growing reliance on private U.S. companies in this post-shuttle era. NASA is paying billions of dollars to Orbital Sciences and the SpaceX company to make station deliveries, and it's counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start flying U.S. astronauts to the orbiting lab as early as 2017. This was the fourth flight by Orbital Sciences to the orbiting lab.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/10/ ... r-liftoff/


NASA supply rocket explodes in mid-air just after launch; cost estimated to be ‘$200 million’ -
http://indianexpress.com/article/world/ ... unch-nasa/