https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHMmMgdcOSU

10/28/2014 6:40:51 PM

I was watching live with my 2 1/2 year old daughter... in her words "uh oh, rocket broke"

10/28/2014 7:14:19 PM

My 7 year old said "Oh crap!"

10/28/2014 7:15:20 PM

and technically it's not a NASA rocket.

10/28/2014 7:16:45 PM

But it did blow up Wallop's Island, which is a NASA facility.

10/28/2014 7:18:08 PM

and they were under contract by NASA to deliver supplies to the ISS.

10/28/2014 7:23:16 PM

Quote :

"uh oh, rocket broke"

lol

10/28/2014 7:37:29 PM

^definitely loled

10/28/2014 7:43:14 PM

I blame GM ignition switches.

10/28/2014 8:10:20 PM

Press conference pushed back to 8:45 now.

10/28/2014 8:33:30 PM

thanks obama

10/28/2014 8:34:56 PM

Good thing they weren't carrying a manned capsule yet.

10/28/2014 11:29:06 PM

this rocket was carrying replacement airbags for the ISS.

10/28/2014 11:52:48 PM

^^yes, it's good that it wasn't manned, but this isn't one of the companies working on a commercial crew vehicle... but even if an event like this happened with a crewed vehicle, the chances of crew survival would be pretty high... all of the new capsules will have a launch abort system that would immediately detach the capsule and propel it away from the explosion.

^airbags?

[Edited on October 28, 2014 at 11:57 PM. Reason : ]

10/28/2014 11:56:54 PM

Quote :

"and they were under contract by NASA to deliver supplies to the ISS."

I thought that said ISIS for a second, I was like wait, what?

10/29/2014 12:49:19 AM

^ Sorry, the Air Force has the contract on rocket deliveries to ISIS.

10/29/2014 1:04:29 PM

I guess 108% was a little too much power, eh?

10/29/2014 2:08:26 PM

dat 190% rocket power.

10/29/2014 2:53:56 PM

^^Actually engine throttles for large launch vehicles like this typically are at higher percentages than that for most of the flight. There is a brief throttle down through maxQ then again at the end towards MECO.

I already typed out a long thing about this in the manned spaceflight thread in the lounge talking about the most likely cause of the failure but it was NOT a NASA rocket. It was designed and built by Orbital Sciences which has a team of fine engineers and scientists. Sending rockets into space isn't easy and there are always going to be failures with this kind of technology.

Like Smath said, any type of manned mission on this type of rocket would have had a Launch Abort System that would have carried the crew to about 500 mph in like 3 seconds, well away from any danger. On top of that, there would have been a ton more redundancies and safety measures. Losing money and time is annoying yes, but at least it can be replaced.

10/29/2014 4:25:28 PM

Quote :

"uh oh, rocket broke"

10/29/2014 4:34:23 PM

gotta be good for spacex

10/30/2014 10:13:28 AM

plume from explosion on weather radar...

10/30/2014 1:59:27 PM

where the fuck am I looking at?

10/30/2014 2:24:49 PM

u just gotta find the plume. It is easy bro.

10/30/2014 3:09:32 PM

^^thats Virginia

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

10/30/2014 3:15:12 PM

how do you fail something like this

come the fuck on

10/30/2014 3:33:06 PM

Antares Data Review:



Telemetry data has been released to Orbital and our engineers presented a very quick look assessment to the Accident Investigation Board at the end of the day. It appears the Antares vehicle had a nominal pre-launch and launch sequence with no issues noted. All systems appeared to be performing nominally until approximately T+15 seconds at which point the failure occurred. Evidence suggests the failure initiated in the first stage after which the vehicle lost its propulsive capability and fell back to the ground impacting near, but not on, the launch pad. Prior to impacting the ground, the rocket’s Flight Termination System was engaged by the designated official in the Wallops Range Control Center.

10/31/2014 10:31:20 AM

so who has to pay for all the stuff that got blown up? Beyond the launch facility itself, there were 5.5 tons of supplies, not all of which were TP and space ice cream.

10/31/2014 10:34:36 AM

^^^You have to be kidding. There are literally millions of things that could go wrong on a system this complex. It isn't like riding a fucking bike down the driveway.

^The insurance company pays for it

[Edited on October 31, 2014 at 10:37 AM. Reason : ]

10/31/2014 10:36:42 AM

So, Flo from Progressive?

10/31/2014 10:43:01 AM

i'm pretty sure it's the lizard guy.

10/31/2014 10:56:13 AM