Tag: rocket
Orbital Rocket Explodes After Launch

Orbital Rocket Explodes After Launch

Washington — An unmanned rocket owned by Orbital Sciences Corporation exploded in a giant fireball and plummeted back to Earth just seconds after launch on what was to be a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

“The Antares rocket suffered an accident shortly after lift-off,” NASA mission control in Houston said, describing the blast at Wallops Island, Virginia, as a “catastrophic anomaly.”

Orbital’s unmanned Cygnus cargo ship was carrying 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of supplies for the six astronauts living at the research outpost.

After the countdown, the base of the tall, white rocket ignited on cue, then rose a short distance into the air before it suddenly exploded in a fiery blast six seconds later.

Enveloped in flames, the rocket collapsed to the ground, as a cloud of dark gray smoke rose from the wreckage.

Officials said the cost of the rocket and supplies was over $200 million, not including the damage caused on the ground.

Investigators swiftly secured the perimeter of the area and forbade any outside interviews of witnesses or staff, citing classified equipment that had been aboard the spacecraft.

As night fell, fires were seen burning at the coastal launch pad, where waves lapped at the shore.

It was unclear what caused the explosion, which occurred at 6:22 pm (2222 GMT).

“Something went wrong, and we will find out what that is,” said Frank Culbertson, executive vice president at Orbital Sciences.

He said investigators would evaluate the debris and analyze the rocket’s telemetry to uncover the exact sequence of events.

All personnel in the area were accounted for, and there were no injuries, officials said.

There was, however significant property damage at the launchpad.

It was the first nighttime launch of an Antares rocket, according to Orbital’s pre-launch blog.

Engineers said the countdown had gone smoothly, and there were no issues apparent with the machinery before the launch.

“We don’t really have any early indication of what might have failed,” Culbertson said.

– Space station well-stocked –

The mission, known as CRS-3, was to be Orbital’s fourth trip to the ISS, including an initial demonstration flight.

Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said the space station was well-stocked and that no “absolutely critical” cargo was lost in the blast.

Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for a total of eight supply missions.

After the U.S. space shuttle program ended in 2011, leaving no government program to send humans to the space station, private companies raced to restore U.S. access.

SpaceX’s Dragon was the first commercial spacecraft to make a supply journey there in 2010. Its next trip is scheduled for early December.

The Cygnus craft, which is shaped like a massive beer keg, made its first journey to the ISS in 2013.

Unlike the Dragon, which returns to Earth intact, the Cygnus burns up on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the launch failure and would continue to receive updates on the probe, the White House said.

AFP Photo

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SpaceX Launches Falcon 9 Rocket Carrying Satellite

SpaceX Launches Falcon 9 Rocket Carrying Satellite

By Chad Garland, Los Angeles Times

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off early Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Fla., after its initial launch attempt was scrubbed with less than a minute on the countdown clock.

It was the fourth orbital launch for the Hawthorne, Calif-based rocket company so far this year and the 11th Falcon 9 flight. The commercial space firm said the 2.5-hour delay was related to an issue with the rocket’s first stage.

SpaceX had planned for liftoff at 1:25 a.m. Eastern time Monday, but the computer aborted the countdown with 12 seconds on the clock. Takeoff was at 4 a.m., 11 minutes before the launch window closed.

The launch was streamed online, with Falcon 9 product director John Insprucker giving updates from Hawthorne.

The nine-engine rocket lifted off with more than 1 million pounds of thrust, reaching supersonic speeds in under two minutes and burning a white-hot arc across the sky. It jettisoned its first stage after about three minutes and delivered its payload into orbit about 28 minutes after liftoff.

The Falcon 9 was carrying a commercial broadcast television satellite to space for Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Ltd., or AsiaSat. The satellite was manufactured by Palo Alto’s Space Systems/Loral.

Due to the fuel expenditure required to deliver the satellite to a high orbit, the launch did not include a rocket reusability test. Three previous Falcon 9 flights to low Earth orbit involved attempts to bring the rocket’s first stage engine gently back to Earth for re-use — part of the rocket-maker’s efforts to drive down the cost of commercial space flight.

Tuesday’s launch comes a day after Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced a $15.3 million incentive package to pay for infrastructure development at a site at the southern tip of Texas, where SpaceX plans to build the world’s first commercial spaceport for orbital missions.

The company has said it plans to launch 12 rockets a year from the site east of Brownsville, on Boca Chica Beach near the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo via WikiCommons

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NASA Finalizes Contract To Build The Most Powerful Rocket Ever

NASA Finalizes Contract To Build The Most Powerful Rocket Ever

By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times

NASA has reached a milestone in its development of the Space Launch System, or SLS, which is set to be the most powerful rocket ever and may one day take astronauts to Mars.

After completing a critical design review, Boeing Co. has finalized a $2.8 billion contract with the space agency. The deal allows full production on the rocket to begin.

“Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS — the largest ever — will be built safely, affordably and on time,” Virginia Barnes, Boeing’s Space Launch System vice president and program manager, said in a statement.

The last time NASA’s completed a critical design review of a deep-space human rocket was 1961, when the space agency assessed the mighty Saturn V, which ultimately took man to the moon.

Work on the 321-foot Space Launch System is spread throughout Southern California, including Boeing’s avionics team in Huntington Beach. The rocket’s core stage will get its power from four RS-25 engines for former space shuttle main engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Canoga Park.

The rocket will carry the Orion spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., which can carry up to four astronauts beyond low Earth orbit on long-duration, deep-space destinations including near-Earth asteroids, the moon, and ultimately Mars.

The rocket, which is designed to carry crew and cargo, is scheduled for its initial test flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2017.

The first mission will launch an empty Orion spacecraft. The second mission is targeted for 2021 and will launch Orion and a crew of up to four NASA astronauts.

The rocket’s initial flight-test configuration will provide a 77-ton lift capacity. The final evolved two-stage configuration will be able to lift more than 143 tons.

Photo: Luke Bryant via Flickr

Court Blocks U.S. Plan To Buy Russian Rocket Engines

Court Blocks U.S. Plan To Buy Russian Rocket Engines

Washington (AFP) – A U.S. court has blocked a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing from buying Russian-made rocket engines, after private rocket operator SpaceX filed a lawsuit protesting the contract.

The preliminary injunction against the deal between the U.S. Air Force and United Launch Systems was issued late Wednesday by Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The ruling blocks ULS, its parent company United Launch Alliance, and the Air Force from making payments to any entity subject to the control of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

That includes NPO Energomash, the Russian state-owned company that makes the rocket engines that power ULA launches of U.S. government and national security satellites.

Rogozin heads Russia’s defense industry and space program, and is on a U.S. sanctions list over the crisis in Ukraine.

SpaceX on April 28 filed a legal protest against the contract, which guaranteed the purchase of 36 rocket cores from ULA to be used in national security launches, on the basis that it was struck without any competition from other companies.

The deal was part of the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program, which is the fourth largest program in the defense budget at a cost of $70 billion, according to court documents.

However, it was unclear how much money was at stake in the ruling. The injunction would not apply to any purchase orders placed or money paid prior to April 30, the court documents said.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told reporters last week that the Air Force’s awarding of a contract without allowing other companies to compete was “not right” and raised the possibility that the deal could be a violation of sanctions.

The injunction did not address the issue Musk raised of fair competition, and could be lifted if the U.S. Treasury, Commerce Department or State Department reviews the deal and finds it does not violate sanctions.

On Tuesday, Rogozin lashed out at U.S. sanctions on high-tech exports to Russia and said the move could endanger U.S. astronauts at the International Space Station.

The world’s astronauts rely on Russian rockets for transport to the orbiting outpost, paying tens of million per seat ever since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle in 2011.

“If their aim is to deliver a blow to Russia’s rocket-building sector, then by default, they would be exposing their astronauts on the ISS,” Rogozin said, according to the Interfax news agency.

“Sanctions are always a boomerang which come back and painfully hit those who launched them,” added Rogozin on a visit to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March.

California-based SpaceX was the first private company to reach the ISS with its own unmanned cargo capsule in 2012, and is aiming to have a crew-carrying spaceship ready by 2017.

©afp.com / Patrick H. Corkery