A rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded seconds after take off yesterday in Virginia.
‘A mishap has occurred. We have lost the vehicle,’ Nasa said.
Carrying over 5 055 pounds of supplies and equipment, the 14-story Antares rocket which was built by Orbital Sciences Corp took off on time, but then exploded in a literal fireworks display.
The good news is the rocket was unmanned, so there is no repeat of the Challenger disaster of 1986.
NASA has also said that the explosion will not affect people on the ISS – they have enough supplies to last well into 2015 and there is another rocket set to visit in December.
Elon Musk, who is the CEO of SpaceX (which is a competitor to Orbital Sciences Corp) had a few things to say, TWO YEARS AGO…
“One of our competitors, Orbital Sciences, has a contract to resupply the International Space Station, and their rocket honestly sounds like the punch line to a joke. It uses Russian rocket engines that were made in the ’60s. I don’t mean their design is from the ’60s—I mean they start with engines that were literally made in the ’60s and, like, packed away in Siberia somewhere.”
Check out Metro, Mashable and The NY Times.
