A powerful explosion just six seconds after take-off, ended the Antares rocket flight. The unmanned spacecraft was carrying more than two tons of equipment and supplies to the International Space Station – eg thirty-two miniature satellite research.
The crash database NASA Wallops Island, Virginia, fortunately no one was injured.
– It seemed that the start is progressing well, but after a few seconds I noticed that the tip of the rocket tilts to the left – reported Chris Tolton, witness the explosion.
Former astronaut Mark Kelly points out that it is still too early to talk about the reasons. – Often, the situation tends to crash safety system allows the controlled destruction of the missiles that flew not in the direction in which we would not want her guide – points.
NASA announced on Twitter that the launcher exploded and fell to the ground just six seconds after separation from the starting platform in the center of space research Wallops, Va.
“The fourth mission”
Under the plan, Cygnus had to start on Monday, but the flight was canceled for a few minutes before the start and was postponed to Tuesday.
This was to be the fourth mission for the Cygnus cargo ship the ISS. This time on board was a load of 2300 kg, including 32 miniature satellite research, a device for tracking meteorites and oxygen tank.
Cygnus belongs to a private American company Orbital Sciences Corp. Along with the definitive withdrawal from service three years ago, the American space shuttle, NASA has been deprived of its own means of supplying the ISS. Replacing the ISS crew members currently occurs only via Russian Soyuz ships.
Last Saturday returned to Earth belongs to another American private company, SpaceX, Dragon unmanned transport, which provided for the ISS nearly 1.5 tons of supplies among others, equipment and materials for scientific experiments. And on Wednesday, is expected to fly to the ISS Russian cargo ship.
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