Vehicle Suffers Failure Just Seconds Into Launch Sequence

Analysis By ANN Space Correspondent, Wes Oleszewski

At approximately 18:22:38.651 Eastern time, the two AJ-26 first stage engines on the Antares booster ignited at NASA's Wallops Island launch facility on the southern Virginia coast.

About three seconds later the vehicle lifted off and lit up the evening sky. Just 12.22 seconds after liftoff a bright flash appeared near the engine bells and less than two seconds later thrust was clearly being terminated.

Shortly thereafter, the boat tail of the launch vehicle exploded and the booster began to back-slide into its own exhaust as it toppled back toward the pad. The explosion that followed appeared to take place prior to the booster hitting the ground and was either caused by a range safety command destruct or by the compromise of the LOX and RP-1 tanks. No matter which it was - the Antares had suffered a catastrophic failure at launch.

The unmanned flight was a supposed to be a re-supply mission the International Space Station. The Cygnus spacecraft that was being boosted was carrying 4,882 pounds of cargo which included 1649 pounds of food. Also aboard was computer equipment and spare parts for the station among other important items and scientific equipment.

All of that will now have to be re-scheduled aboard a later mission and some of those later missions may have items bumped to make way for the critical items that were on this flight. Since NASA no longer has the Space Shuttle and its ability to loft huge payloads, cargo to the ISS must now be carefully scheduled out in small loads aboard these smaller rockets. An event such as this causes huge issues in that scheduling. Additionally, the time needed to find and fix the problem will take the Antares out of the flight schedule for a undetermined period, which will further the difficulties.

Antares boosts on two AJ-26 engines, which are modified versions of the Russian NK-33 engines. Those engines were surplus left over from the Soviet N-1 moon rocket that was supposed to compete with the United States' Saturn V. The N-1 was cancelled by the Soviet space agency after every single one of the boosters blew up in the first minutes of flight due to engine failures.

Orbital Sciences Corporation, who makes the Antares, has also had a troubled past with the AJ-26. There were issues on the test stands in 2009 and 2011. Most recently, on May 22nd, 2014 an AJ-26 suffered a catastrophic failure on Test Stand E at NASA Stennis when the engine came apart due in large part to a pump issue.

No one on the ground was injured in the failure. NASA and Orbital personnel will be examining telemetry, wreckage, video and records in order to discover the cause of the failure and solve the problem so that another Antares can be launched.

FMI: www.nasa.gov