Posted on 10/31/2014 11:51:32 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
The unmanned rocket that exploded seconds after liftoff Tuesday on its way to the International Space Station did so because the operator hit self-destruct once problems with the launch became apparent, the company that owns it said.
The Antares rocket, operated by Orbital Sciences Corp., crashed in a large fire Tuesday night, scattering debris over a wide area. It was carrying more than 5,000 pounds of scientific instruments, food and other supplies for the astronauts aboard the space station when down with the rocket. NASA says the space station is equipped with plenty of food to last while additional resupply missions are organized.
Orbital spokesperson Barron Beneski told CNN the crash was initiated by the flight termination system. Such an order is typically given after it’s clear the rocket will not meet its intended trajectory in order to ensure that it goes down over a relatively small and unpopulated area. No injuries were reported in the crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Rockets made by SpaceX haven’t crashed.
Let us go back to the moon.
Send the bill to Algore. He has millions in oil money, zinc mining and Jihad TV.
Do they normally detonate over a launch pad?
Until today.
By “They”, do you mean the hackers that did this?
Once problems with the launch became apparent?
The engines blew up, NK-33’s aren’t known for being good purchases.
Are you sure of that?
http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2014/08/22/spacex-test-rocket-explodes-in-texas/14472939/
Bfl
Or muslims.
Somewhere, those obnoxious kids that want to be engineers when they grow up are trembling.
I watched the launch live over the Internet stream. I observed in the first few seconds of liftoff that raw kerosene was pouring from the spacecraft bypassing the engine and igniting in the exhaust plume. The rocket immediately lost lift and was falling back to the ground when range safety obviously detonated. So the press, not knowing anything, reports that the rocket exploded. Yes, it did, but that wasn’t the proximate cause of the failure which more likely was a rupture of the fuel line or a failure of the turbine fuel pump.
So why did it take them days to announce this?
Obviously they knew the button had been pushed almost immediately.
"Zero – Zero – Zero – DESTRUCT – Zero"
FTS initiation or not, still don’t know what the issue was.
I vote engine went to h**l.
Russian QC is um, a bit lax...
I think the rocket was already on the ground burning and coming apart before it was self destructed.
Orbital uses, or attempts to use, Russian engines that have been in storage in Siberia for 50 years.
Just cleaning up the mess caused by this one explosion will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
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