Yesterday, NASA’s unmanned Antares rocket suffered an accident during takeoff that ended in an explosion, completely destroying the rocket and later the launch pad.
The Antares rocket was a supply vehicle used by NASA on two previous occasions to carry research equipment and supplies to the international space station orbiting in space. On this mission, Antares intended to bring 5,000 pounds of supplies to the space station with a planned liftoff on Monday, October 27, which was canceled due to technical problems.
Rocket Antares
Official NASA sources record that on Tuesday, the spacecraft was in optimal conditions for takeoff as well as the weather; However, 6 seconds after takeoff, when the Antares rocket had already gained some height, an explosion occurred that knocked it to the ground, generating a second large explosion that ended the rocket and the launch pad.
Exploration of the Antares
In initial statements, NASA reported that there was no fatality in the incident, and that the crew of the international space station (ISS) are out of danger of running out of supplies.
“We will find out what went wrong, we will fix it and we will learn from it”said Bill Gersteinmaier, NASA’s Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations,
From this moment it only remains to wait for the official part of NASA on the cause of the catastrophic failure of the rocket, after the investigation that began after it yields its results. For their part, NASA officials call for calm before speculating about the future of the next Antares rocket missions. “We are not going to fly another Antares rockets until we understand the cause of the failure and the necessary corrective measures to ensure this does not happen again,” said Frank Culbertson, executive vice president of Orbital Sciences Corp, a company contracted by NASA to design the the same.
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