The unverified rumor is that the rocket was an Antares, but the ENGINE was RUSSIAN.
That makes a lot of sense. The WSJ article didn’t have any information about the make of the engine, but the rumor is it was Russian.
Someone earlier made a comment that ‘The only think NASA makes any more are PowerPoint presentations.’
Lot of truth to that.
That the engine was Russian made is no surprise — most of US launches are done with the Russian made RD-1 kerosene engine.
If the Russians withheld those engines, the US launch program would be drastically curtailed. The US is nearly totally dependent on Russian good will to get into space. So far have we fallen.
It was an Orbital Science Corp assembled Antares vehicle and Cygnus capsule, using the NASA facility at Wallops Is, Va.
The only so-called surprise was the Cygnus was carrying a classified crypto device - most likely for encrypted up and down link communications.