Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch Pad

Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded shortly after launch. (Credit: NASA TV)

An Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded at 6:22 EDT today, six seconds after its launch. The cause of the launch failure is still being determined. It does not appear that anybody was injured by the accident.

The Antares rocket was to carry a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station, loaded with cargo and supplies for the crew. Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to make at least 8 cargo runs to the International Space Station. The company has already made two successful flights, this was to be the third.

Another cargo ship is currently scheduled to liftoff from Kazakhstan on October 29. So far, theres been no indication that this flight will be delayed. SpaceX is also scheduled to deliver a cargo ship to the station in December. Theres currently no danger to the crew of the ISS from this failure.

More information will be added to this story as its released.

Update 7:24pm EDT: The NTSB will be active, but in monitor mode for this investigation. This means that Orbital and NASA will be able to interview their people. Had NTSB decided to take a lead role in investigating, nobody could be interviewed until an NTSB investigator began their work.

Update 7:35pm EDT: The failure of this launch shouldnt impact Space Station operations. However, a number of science experiments were lost. You can see a complete list of those here. Also notably lost was asteroid mining company Planetary Resources first space telescope and a flock of 26 Cubesats from Planet Labs. These were all going to be launched from the Space Stations cubesat launcher.

The two companies took this in good spirits, though. Planet Labs noted in a blog post that While this will not have a huge impact on at Planet Labs because our agile aerospace approach, space is hard and our hearts go out to our fellow space innovators.

Planetary Resources simply tweeted:

Update 7:57pm EDT: Orbital Sciences issued the following statement:

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Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch Pad