Rockets go boom...(Antares explosion)

[Dantrag]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/mom...ry?id=26539879



Holy fuck <_>

[BaneTheBrawler]

WE DO NOT SOW

[Priran]

Best part of that video is the blubbering mangina at the end.

[ronin sparthos]

+no one died
-200m up in flames :/
+fucking explosions are awesome
-that launch crew convo

[Omniyoji]

For a sec there I thought that guy was crying lol

[Dantrag]

Lol I think he did.

Also, during some fireworks shows I've been able to feel the sound from the explosions. I can't imagine the sound/pressure from this thing.

[Meresgi]

Was the talk at work today, couldnt see what was going on with ISS but the TV's near my office had the astronauts on there talking to ground stations. Probably like "So...where is that order of Twinkies???"

[Tarage]

Shit sucks. I know this sort of thing happens, but it feels like it sets back space travel every time it does. I wish there was more funding for this sort of thing, not less.

[archibaldcrane]

Should've flown SpaceX.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Thank you for flying Greyjoy Air. We hope you have enjoyed your complimentary Kraken attack. Kerbals please exit through the pearlescent gate.

[Meresgi]

At least it wasn't a bird going up, those explode and a good chunk of people all get to look for new jobs haha.

[Kyreth]

Shit sucks. I know this sort of thing happens, but it feels like it sets back space travel every time it does. I wish there was more funding for this sort of thing, not less.

These are privately run companies blowing up a rocket. Trust me, it's not setting space travel back. It'll set back companies that fuck up their launch product, while the ones that succeed and keep succeeding eventually make such runs reliable and efficient.

That we're -seeing- companies regularly doing launches now vs. large gov'ts is a good thing and telling us that yes, space travel is not only advancing, but people are willing to invest large amount of money into something they believe can be made not only reliable, but hugely profitable.

[Meresgi]

Heard from people at work today that some of the parts for this shit were from Soviet era 50's storage warehouses and shit lol. Also Orbital stock took a huge nosedive, which is fine by me because they are annoying to deal with.

[archibaldcrane]

They refurbish old Soviet rockets as part of their launch vehicle I believe, yeah.

[Kyreth]

This is true- Orbital used some 50ish-year old refurbished Soviet engines for their systems.

That the Russians didn't use. That should have been a warning right there.

SpaceX's people were right- a modern, reliable delivery system is not a rebuilt Cold War vodka rocket, and if the postmortem indicates some kind of major flaw in Orbital's old-new engines, not only will their stock drop, they'll probably drop them from contracting to boot. American delivery depending on Russian rejects (that the Russians certainly don't use because they're not as reliable) likely wasn't a good idea to begin with, and quite possibly a Bad Idea.

[TummieGaruda]

Also there were space experiments from 18 schools that were on board which cost them over $20,000 each that was raised via fundraising.

[Salodin]

Also there were space experiments from 18 schools that were on board which cost them over $20,000 each that was raised via fundraising.

That's really unfortunate =(

[Acevalefor]

Another one:
http://www.oregonlive.com/today/inde...l#incart_river

Virgin has joined the fray. I wonder who the third will be.

[Obiron]

http://www.iflscience.com/space/oper...t-deliberately

Still no word on what the ultimate cause of the failure was, but the launch was aborted/blown up on purpose to avoid problems over populated areas.

[Kyreth]

http://www.iflscience.com/space/oper...t-deliberately

Still no word on what the ultimate cause of the failure was, but the launch was aborted/blown up on purpose to avoid problems over populated areas.

Yeah, that's pretty normal in the case of a loss of control, and why most flight paths head out over oceans. If there's enough deviance on an unmanned launch, NASA and military launches will do the exact same thing, selfdestruct the rocket.

And Virgin is a good example of why their test pilots have balls of steel. You're testing a flying bomb, basically. It's a testament to the risk involved that Virgin's system has a pilot ejection system, which at least saved one of the two on board.

Now, you wonder if he'll want to get a crack at flying the next version once they figure out what happened.