[LibWhacker]

Video of crash

[1rudeboy]

Some of the rocket's boosters shut down, maybe. Look at the video.

[Obadiah]

Wait, there was an “emergency booster shutdown” (to prevent an emergency) that created the catastrophic failure? Isn't this like jumbo shrimp?

[NonValueAdded]

there wasn’t much shutdown visible in that video

[The Cajun]

Just watched the vid, holy shittsky!!!

[Jonah Hex]

Bravo Sierra. Judging by the plume, I'd guess there was a cracked casing in one engine resulting in reduced thrust for that engine. With asymmetric thrust being produced by the cluster, the inertial guidance tried but failed to maintain the programmed trajectory by rolling the booster. Looks like the gyros went into gimble lock, and the whole stack tumbled and broke up under dynamic pressures prior to impact.

At least, that's my take based on the video.

Now I would believe all engines shut down about a second before impact due to range safety interlocks. Up to that point, however, engines were running.

Helluva firework...

[Haiku Guy]

I would like to think our spooks are screwing with the Russians, making their rockets crash and crippling their GPS constellation, but I guess they are too busy intercepting domestic e-mail and teenage girls’ Facebook updates.

Besides, the Russians are quite capable of screwing up on their own.

[Noob1999]

And we need the Russian missile technology to get Americans to the Space Station?? Why???