Posted on 10/28/2014 7:16:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
An unmanned cargo rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded Tuesday over a launchpad in Virginia.
No injuries were reported following the first catastrophic launch in NASA's commercial spaceflight effort.
The accident at Orbital Sciences Corp.'s launch complex at Wallops Island was sure to draw criticism over the space agency's growing reliance on private U.S. companies in this post-shuttle effort.
NASA is paying billions of dollars to Orbital Sciences and the SpaceX company to make station deliveries, and it's counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start flying U.S. astronauts to the orbiting lab as early as 2017. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said there was nothing on the lost flight that was urgently needed by the six people living on the space station.
Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket blew up over the launch complex, just six seconds after the liftoff. The company said everyone at the site had been accounted for, and the damage appeared to be limited to the facilities.
Flames could be seen shooting into the sky as the sun set. There was no hint of any trouble until the rocket exploded. This was the second launch attempt for the mission. Monday evening's try was thwarted by a stray sailboat in the rocket's danger zone. The restrictions are in case of just such an accident that occurred Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
.........many years ago a friend wanted me to back him on a construction contract with the City of Austin. Basically, it was a contract to rebuild and remodel several 40 year old building’s around town which included substantial sitework on each.
I trusted this guy (my friend) and didn’t pay much attention and very soon the deal blew up. Why? Because of what is called “set asides”. This is where government makes people (white contractors) use certain classes of people such as you have to have so many blacks and Hispanics and women and so on.
Then I got involved and quickly determined that the spark that blew the deal up was a black contractor my friend gave the sitework sub contract too. Seems he would not man the job and would not tell us when he would. Since he was the sitework contractor, the project was dead stop. So, I fired him.
A “meeting” was called and I was the ONLY white guy in the room among about a dozen folks. The black guy said “I ain’t gonna sit here and listen to this old red faced white guy”. This attitude was undoubtedly because I had fired him off the job and was moving on without him. We had recordings and ample documentation of his refusal to man the job.
Long story short a lawsuit was sparked and very soon we settled with us being paid in full including “lost profit” and released from our bond and attorney fees. Why? Our lawyers convinced City lawyers that the pivotal issue was WHO? was the General Contractor?.............”US” or “them”. Meaning specifically that if you take away the right to hire and fire then “you” (the City) were really the General Contractor and the contract was a sham.
So, I have no doubt that the contract between this rocket company and the government had similar issues..........thus the friggin rocket blew up like our construction project!
What’s that again?
This was their 4th time doing this. So it isn’t like the rocket has never worked before.
I suspect some of what is in the air isn’t good for you. You might want to tape up seams around windows and doors and do a ‘shelter in place’.
You asked me a question, I answered and asked you one in return.
Obama is a failure at everything, except destroying our country and way of life.
Putin has got to be laughing his head off.
Far too late for any of that. We were sitting outside watching it, about 3 miles away and driving home we actually had to drive closer before heading away.
Good luck.
The geniuses the CPUSA has hired over the last 6 years are achieving CCCP type efficiency.
Apparently the USA under the CPUSA regime of HUSSEIN BARAKA can’t even launch a supply rocket.
COMMUNISTS OUT!!!
Tonight (or early tomorrow morning), Russia is launching a Progress supply ship to the ISS.
I am secretly hoping that sucker blows sky-high, just so Putin DOESN’T have something to laugh about.
Something about the incompetence of every federal agency including NASA under Obama - maybe they’re spending too much time and money fabricating evidence of global warming to make the rockets fly straight anymore.....
My M-I-L lives a stone’s throw from there. Really close! In fact, my husband’s father used to work there, tracking rockets, satellites, etc. That was YEARS ago, though! I cannot believe that no one was injured! That looked bad!
The rocket that blew up had a bunch of Russian tech on it, including the first-stage engines. Putin probably shouldn’t be laughing too hard.
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.
Why is NASA the middleman? Do they own all the launch facilities?
“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
Considering the number of failed launches they’ve had I’m surprised the government is still doing bidness with them.
There’s also an Atlas 5 launch at Cape Canaveral at 1:21pm tomorrow.
You can watch it here.
http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/10/28/av050-mission-status-center/
Uses a modified Soviet engine design applicable to the 1960’s moon rocket N1, notable for producing a pad explosion seen by a U.S. weather satellite.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/n1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_%28rocket%29
Runs an oxygen rich turbo-pump staged combustor , and has a record of engine burn thru.
Uh, you do realize what you are saying?
30 years ago I might have been surprised by the same situation...
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