This was their 4th time doing this. So it isn’t like the rocket has never worked before.
Lol! I’m not sure your agreeing or disagreeing.
Nonetheless, setting aside who is getting paid off for the 1.9 billion contract Orbital has with NASA, here are a few facts:
1. Orbital is attempting to use 50 year old engines designed, built and purchased from Russia. The failure tonight was because the first stage of one of those half century old engines failed as per an Orbital spokesperson.
Now, this means the engines were “built” approximately 50 years ago not “designed” 50 years ago and built last year. They have been in storage in Siberia since the sixties. So, the engines themselves and the technology are 50 years old.
2. The destroyed payload is estimated to be worth “hundreds” of millions of dollars.
3. The damage to Nasa’s Wallops Island facility will be in the tens of millions.
4. Cryptographic equipment was lost necessitating extreme measures to guard the site.
The whole program is obscenely stupid and no doubt hatched in some liberals mind somewhere.
That’s my opinion. Thanks for your comment.
“This was their 4th time doing this. So it isn’t like the rocket has never worked before.”
Actually, this was their fifth launch with this vehicle. The previous four were successful.
They actually had upgraded this first stage from a 120 configuration to a 130 which included an engine enhancement and larger fuel/oxidizer tanks. The first two were the 110 series and the third and fourth were 120 series.
Problems with engine on new rocket delayed July Wallops launch
http://www.13newsnow.com/story/news/local/13news-now-investigates/2014/10/28/antares-rocket-failed-test/18085285/
More info about the Antares rocket.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antares_(rocket)
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/taurus2.html