NASA Rocket explodes upon launch

[BAK]

The company behind a resupply mission to the International Space Station that ended in a spectacular explosion over a Virginia launchpad has defended the use of ageing Soviet rockets amid growing questions over Nasa’s reliance on private contractors to fill gaps in the US space program.

Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment, ranging from “classified cryptographic” gear to school science experiments, was destroyed in a giant fireball on Tuesday evening after technicians detonated a self-destruct mechanism six seconds after launch because of a “catastrophic” equipment failure.

Though stressing the exact cause of the failure was unknown, an executive at Orbital lamented the lack of more modern alternatives to its rocket engines, which were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the failed aim of putting Soviet cosmonauts on the moon.

“When you look at it there are not many other options around the world in terms of using power plants of this size, certainly not in this country, unfortunately,” Frank Culbertson, Orbital’s executive vice-president, said after the crash.

He also indicated the problem involved failures of the first stage of the Antares rocket, powered by a refurbished Aerojet engine left over from the NK-33 program when the Soviet Union abandoned its moonshot.

“The asset stopped, there was some, let’s say, disassembly of the first stage, after which it fell to earth,” said Culbertson, in a deadpan description of an explosion that could be seen for miles and terrified observers.

The technology has been ridiculed by commercial rivals but used regularly by Orbital to resupply the ISS in recent years, despite growing criticism in Congress of Nasa’s reliance on commercial partners to maintain a human presence in space.

“Their rocket honestly sounds like the punchline to a joke,” said Elon Musk, founder of rival SpaceX, in an interview in 2012. “It uses Russian rocket engines that were made in the 60s. I don’t mean their design is from the 60s — I mean they start with engines that were literally made in the 60s and, like, packed away in Siberia somewhere.”

Amid growing questions over the technology on Tuesday night, Culbertson insisted its age could also be an advantage but said Orbital would carry out an urgent inquiry to determine the cause of the latest failure before launching any further missions.

“The history of this engine has been well documented. Basically this was an engine that was designed to carry cosmonauts to the moon,” he said. “A number of them were bought by Aerojet to be refurbished and Americanised. It’s an extensively tested engine, very robust and rugged.

“We don’t know whether the engine was involved in this or not and that’s something we will try to determine as quickly as possible.

Astronauts on the space station, who watched the launch and were said by Nasa to be “disappointed” at the outcome, will now have to rely on supplies from a Russian launch planned on Wednesday.

Nasa said it would also be reordering the manifest on a separate SpaceX mission due next month to make sure necessary supplies reached the crew before a safety buffer runs out in March.

The accident is likely to have caused extensive damage to Nasa Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and its director, Bill Wrobel, urged members of the public to be cautious in approaching hazardous wreckage near the site. He reported no injuries from the explosion itself.

Mike Pinkston, the Antares program manager for Orbital Science, told Reuters that the spacecraft had been carrying “some classified cryptographic equipment, so we do need to maintain the area around the debris in a secure manner”.

The rocket was propelling an unmanned cargo ship loaded with 5,000lb (2,200kg) of supplies such as food, tools, parts and experiments.

An unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp Antares rocket headed for the International Space Station lifts off from the Wallops flight facility shortly before exploding. Photograph: Jay Diem/AP
​

he launch had already been delayed once after a sailboat entered its range on Monday night. Tuesday brought good launch weather, with clear skies and light winds.

To guard against the dangers of a failed launch the Nasa facility maintains a hazard area of about 1,400 square miles around the site.
Orbital said parts of the mission were covered by insurance and the rocket alone had been worth $200m.

The company has a $1.9bn contract with Nasa to make eight missions to ferry supplies to the space station and would have completed its third delivery with this launch. Since the US space agency retired its shuttle fleet in 2011 it has relied on private companies and co-operation with Russia for its missions into space.

A Nasa A TV image shows the Antares rocket taking off. Photograph: NASA TV / HANDOUT/EPA
​

Orbital said the spacecraft suffered a “catastrophic failure” at 6.22pm ET. “It is far too early to know the details of what happened,” said Culbertson in an initial statement.

“As we begin to gather information our primary concern lies with the ongoing safety and security of those involved in our response and recovery operations. We will conduct a thorough investigation immediately to determine the cause of this failure and what steps can be taken to avoid a repeat of this incident.

“As soon as we understand the cause we will begin the necessary work to return to flight to support our customers and the nation’s space program.”

The Antares unmanned spacecraft explodes shortly after liftoff. Photograph: ZUMA/REX/ZUMA/REX
​

Source: Antares rocket explodes at Nasa base seconds after launch | Science | theguardian.com

 

[BAK]

CNN) -- An unmanned NASA-contracted rocket exploded in midair early Tuesday evening, producing huge flames and loud booms along the eastern Virginia coast but no injuries or deaths.

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft had been set to launch at 6:22 p.m. ET from the Wallops Flight Facility along the Atlantic Ocean, carrying roughly 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.

It exploded about six seconds after launch.What was left of the spacecraft and rocket plummeted back to Earth, causing even more flames upon impact.

The rocket and spacecraft -- which together cost more than $200 million, according to Frank Culbertson, the general manager of Orbital's Advanced Programs Group -- are gone. And there's obvious damage beyond that, including to the launchpad, though the night skies made it hard to immediately gauge how much.

One thing officials do know is that rocket science is, in the words of NASA Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier, "a really tough business."

"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.

Witnesses: From 'breathtaking' to horrific

The Orbital rocket had been set to go up Monday, only to be scrubbed "because of a boat down range in the trajectory Antares would have flown had it lifted off," according to NASA. Coast Guard spokesman David Weydert said the boat that triggered the postponement was 40 miles offshore.

Tuesday, by contrast, seemed perfect. Just before liftoff, NASA reported "100% favorable" weather and "no technical concerns with the rocket or spacecraft being worked."

It seemed to be going perfectly when Ed Encina saw the launch brighten up the sky from his vantage point about 3 miles away.

"And then, all of a sudden, you see a big fireball," said Encina, a Baltimore Sun reporter.

Encina recalled a loud boom that caused "your feet (to) shake a little bit," as well as flames enveloping a roughly 100-yard area around the launchpad in a marshy area with brush.

CNN iReporter Dymetria Sellers, who watched from a drawbridge because the NASA visitors station was ful, recalled a "breathtakingly beautiful" sight when the rocket ascended, followed by mass confusion as flames lit up the early nighttime sky moments later.

"About 30 seconds later, we could hear and feel two booms reach us, and it was apparent the rocket had exploded," she said.
Mark Kelly: This is a 'risky business'
Raw video of unmanned rocket explosion

Did you witness the rocket explosion? Please share your images

Mark Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, said such a colossal fire was to be expected.

"It takes a lot of propellant to take a spacecraft of that size moving 25 times the speed of sound," Kelly told CNN, explaining how fast the rocket should have gone on its way to the space station. "So when it fails, it's usually pretty catastrophic"

Authorities said the safety parameters appear to have worked, and noted the lack of casualties.

"All we lost was hardware," Culbertson said. "That hardware, however, is very important."

NASA official: 'We'll fix it'

So what happened?

That's exactly what officials -- both from public agencies like NASA and private companies like Orbital -- hope to find out in the coming days and weeks.

"What we know so far is pretty much what everybody saw on the video," Culbertson said. "The ascent stopped, there was some, let's say disassembly, of the first stage, and then it fell to Earth. ...

We don't really have any early indications of exactly what might have failed, and we need some time to look at that."

Orbital will lead the investigation, along with the Federal Aviation Administration, with NASA assisting.

Among other things, they'll try to collect and examine any debris that can be recovered, review data from the spacecraft before its destruction and look at videos around the launch time.

The main focus Tuesday night was safety. Bill Wrobel, the Wallops Flight Facility director, said fire crews had set up a perimeter around the affected area. "We're just basically letting the fire burn out, but they are contained," he added.

Authorities expressed confidence that no people were directly affected by the explosion, but they could come across scattered remnants that are possibly floating in the water.

As to when Orbital will fly again from Wallops, the only site it's now permitted to launch from, Culbertson didn't specify a timetable beyond saying, "We will fly again as soon as we can safely."

Gerstenmaier offered a similar take: "We'll figure out what the failure is, we'll fix it, and we'll learn from it."

2 missions set to resupply space station

In the meantime, they'll have to rebound from the loss.

A third of the spacecraft's cargo was material for scientific investigations such as a Houston school's experiment on pea growth and a study on blood flow in space.

There also were basic supplies meant for the crew of the space station -- now orbiting more than 200 miles above Earth -- including more than 1,300 pounds of food.

But in the short term, no one is saying the space station's six-person crew will go hungry.

NASA won't directly restock them, having relied on private companies to do so since the end of its space shuttle program. That includes Virginia-based Orbital, which had its first of eight planned ISS launches in January out of the Wallops facility as part of its $1.9 billion contract with NASA.

Orbital becomes second private firm to send cargo to ISS

If Orbital can't resupply the space station, others can. On Wednesday, for instance, a Russian Soyuz resupply spacecraft stocked with cargo and crew supplies is set to launch from Kazakhstan.

SpaceX, another private company, plans its fifth mission in December, including more supplies and a laser instrument to measure pollution, dust and other aspects of the atmosphere, according to NASA.

Even if those missions somehow fail, the space station crew has enough on hand to last well into next year.

"The station is in great shape; the crew is in good shape," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS manager.

 

[Sijali]

Good. Less debris in the space. I ceased to believe these launches and experiments are for the advancement of human kind. Everything now is espionage, military, strategies to kill people!

 

[Lancashire]

Huu ujuzi wao iko siku tutalipuliwa dunia nzima tufe

 

[MWANAKA]

Jambo jema ni kwamba hiyo rocket haikuwa na mtu

 

[Lovery]

Ingekuwa tanzania hao wana anga huko nje wangekufa na njaa maana roketi tungekuwanayo moja tu.

 

[figganigga]

Roketi ya safari za anga za juu iliyokua ikielekea Kituo cha Kimataifa cha Anga za juu imelipuka wakati ikiruka kutoka jimbo la Virginia nchini Marekani.


Roketi Antares, yenye urefu wa ghorofa 14 ikiwa imetengenezwa na shirika la Orbital Sciences Corp, ililipuka sekunde chache baada ya kuruka katika kituo cha Wallops Flight Facility.


Chanzo cha tatizo la kulipuka kwa roketi hiyo ya mizigo bado hakijafahamika.
Mipango ya kurusha roketi hiyo ya anga za juu Jumatatu, ilicheleweshwa kutoka na boti iliyokuwa karibu na eneo la maji la kurukia roketi hiyo.
Ndege hiyo ilitarajiwa kuwa ya tatu kupewa kandarasi na Shirika la taifa la kusimamia safari za anga za juu la Marekani, NASA.

Roketi iliyolipuka Virginia, Marekani


Roketi hiyo ilitarajiwa kubeba karibu kilo 2,200 za shehena kwa ajili ya wanaanga sita walioko katika Kituo cha Kimataifa cha Anga za Juu.
"Tutajua kilichotokea, tunatumaini hivi karibuni, na tutaendelea vizuri na mipango yetu," amesema Frank Culbertson, makamu-rais mtendaji wa shirika la Orbital Sciences.


"Wote tumeona hili jambo likitokea kabla katika shughuli zetu, na wote tumeona kampuni husika zikiimarika kutokana na tukio kama hili, na tutafanya vivyo hivyo."

Roketi muda mfupi kabla ya kuruka


Hakuna aliyejeruhiwa, amesema Bwana Culbertson, na kundi la wataalam wachunguzi tayari walikuwa wakipitia data kujaribu kubaini chanzo cha ajali hiyo.


Amesema, Jumatano asubuhi, kazi ya upimaji wa mabaki katika eneo la tukio ingeanza.
Uchunguzi hautarukia kwenye hitimisho lakini kundi moja la uchunguzi litajielekeza kuchunguza injini za roketi hiyo AJ-26 zilizotumika kuinyanyua roketi hiyo kutoka eneo la kurukia, anasema Jonathan Amos, mwandishi wa BBC wa masuala ya sayansi.


"Kwa kweli hizi ni injini za Kirusi zilizoboreshwa ambazo kwa asili zilitengenezwa kwa ajili ya roketi za Urusi za kwenda mwezini za N-1.
"Zilitengenezwa kufikia viwango vya kisasa, lakini moja ililipuka wakati wa majaribio ardhini mapema mwaka huu."

Chanzo:BBC

 

[elmagnifico]

sijawahi kuelewa huu mtindo wa mtu anaanzisha thread flani na mwingine anapost habari hiyo hiyo within the same thread.