BREAKING: NASA Rocket explodes on launch

(CNN) -- An unmanned NASA-contracted rocket exploded early Tuesday evening along the eastern Virginia coast, causing a huge fireball but no apparent deaths.

According to NASA, the Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft were set to launch at 6:22 p.m. ET from the Wallops Flight Facility along the Atlantic Ocean. It was set to carry some 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.

Unmanned NASA-contracted rocket explodes; damage is 'significant'

Good to hear nobody was on this one. I wonder what caused it?

a reply to: Light soul

That's what happens when you purchase parts from China. You may get them dirt cheap, but they lack the quality you get when they're made in the U.S.A..

From the article:

The spacecraft contained "classified ... equipment," flight director says

You think maybe sabotage, not necessarily by a terrorist group?

a reply to: Petros312

Classified does not mean it is something noteworthy or of interest to terrorist. Tons of mundane stuff is classified. I wouldn't be surprised if nearly all space cargo didn't contain some classified hardware, instrumentation or paperwork.

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: Light soul

That's what happens when you purchase parts from China. You may get them dirt cheap, but they lack the quality you get when they're made in the U.S.A..

Couldn't agree more. In fact, I'll bet 90% of the system in whole was from manufactured parts from China. I wonder how many fails it will take to start thinking of a new source. Not the US though because we have few and limited manufacturing plants anymore.

If the government would have used a 500 billion or from the bailout money, they could have set up some great plants right here in the good ole USA.

Well that was money well spent. Guess the real fortunate news here is that it was a unmanned rocket.

Guess that's why Nasa aint sending people into space on their own rockets anymore. Yeeesh, what a mess.

Every space agency that's bee around long enough will have it's fare share of failures.
If anyone can be blamed, blame the US government for spending more on DoD expenses instead of using it for the benefit of mankind.

Wow, that's one big and expensive bang!

It really disappoints me to see these kind of setbacks. This is the kind of thing from the 1960's that I thought we had gotten past. It's these kinds of setbacks that makes me really hope that there really is a secret space program with technologies beyond rocket propulsion.

Looks like it was pad 0A 37°50'2.37"N 75°29'16.47"W

Way out on the end of a sand spit away from everybody.
Just a mean time between failure incident?

Hmmm, didn't they scrubs yesterday's launch becaus of a unauthorized boat in the vicinity?

originally posted by: thesaneone
Hmmm, didn't they scrubs yesterday's launch becaus of a unauthorized boat in the vicinity?

That is absolutely correct, which is a little odd. This is going to be interesting. Only a few weeks ago, SpaceX (whose rocket just blew up) is going to be one of the two private firms running the "space taxi" program with Astronauts.

NASA Awards Space Taxi Contract

NASA has awarded the highly-anticipated space taxi contract to Boeing and SpaceX, a move which will end the agency’s reliance on Russian technology to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.

a reply to: flucker

I agree wholeheartedly. It is absolutely astounding to see how much we spend on military garbage. Only a minute fraction gets spent on environmentally-pro programs and things that can actually benefit mankind. War has never and will never benefit mankind in any way, although at times it is just.

Just saw on the local news in DC where they said that NASA intentionally blew up the rocket because of technical problems..

"Orbital Sciences' Executive Vice President Frank Culbertson believes the range-safety staff sent a destruct signal before the rocket hit the ground, but he said he is not certain at this point...."

So I guess we'll have to wait and see what the investigation determines.

It probably hit a chemtrail.

originally posted by: TamtammyMacx
It really disappoints me to see these kind of setbacks. This is the kind of thing from the 1960's that I thought we had gotten past. It's these kinds of setbacks that makes me really hope that there really is a secret space program with technologies beyond rocket propulsion.

Unmanned rockets are failing all the time - last year there were 3 total and 1 partial failures - Antares had 2 launches for 2 successes.

originally posted by: Ace High

originally posted by: thesaneone
Hmmm, didn't they scrubs yesterday's launch becaus of a unauthorized boat in the vicinity?

That is absolutely correct, which is a little odd. This is going to be interesting. Only a few weeks ago, SpaceX (whose rocket just blew up) is going to be one of the two private firms running the "space taxi" program with Astronauts.

NASA Awards Space Taxi Contract

NASA has awarded the highly-anticipated space taxi contract to Boeing and SpaceX, a move which will end the agency’s reliance on Russian technology to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.

The rocket which exploded was an Antares rocket, which is manufactured by Orbital Sciences, NOT SpaceX. Many parts of the Antares rocket are manufactured in foreign countries, such as the first-stage engines (Russia) and the first-stage tank (Ukrainian). SpaceX is largely vertically integrated and builds almost everything in-house in the USA.

I fear this is a new trend. I forsee a downturn in the quality and quantity of NASA programs and their "replacements" will be commercially funded missions to space. Then that brings corporations closer to the battlefront as space domination is one of the greatest weapons a nation can have.

a reply to: WeRpeons

Here here

Yup....that's pretty much the truth....or they could have just waited for the December launch of SpaceX.

It's not like:

Just found this launch of a Russia flight to the ISS to resupply it