VIDEO: Antares rocket launch fails with fire and smoke

A private contracted, unmanned NASA rocket exploded just after launch along coastal Virginia early on the evening of October 28 .

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft, products of Orbital Sciences Corp., were set to launch at 6:22 p.m. from Wallops Flight Facility, carrying about 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station. But just six seconds after launch, it exploded, violently, and fell back to earth sending flames, smoke and debris flying.

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The $200 million rocket and spacecraft was completely destroyed, and there was significant damage to the launch pad and surrounding area, though it is unclear to what extent.

NASA Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier said the accident highlights the difficulties of keeping a functional and inhabited space station properly supplied.

"Tonight's events really show the difficulty that it takes for us to do this task of delivering cargo to the space station," he said.

The rocket was supposed to be launched Monday, but the launch was canceled because there was "a boat down range in the trajectory Antares would have flown had it lifted off," NASA said.
A Coast Guard spokesman, David Weydert, said that the boat which triggered the postponement was about 40 miles offshore.

In contrast, Tuesday seemed perfect. Prior to liftoff NASA reported that weather was "100% favorable" and that there were "no technical concerns with the rocket or spacecraft being worked."
But as the breathtaking explosion showed, things did not go well from then on.

"It takes a lot of propellant to take a spacecraft of that size moving 25 times the speed of sound," said Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, on CNN.

Kelly explained that the fuel requirements mean that when a launch fails "it's usually pretty catastrophic."

Safety precautions have ensured that there were no casualties, but the valuable hardware was lost.

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