Caused the ancient Soviet engine the failure of the Antares rocket

[Bleipriester]

The ancient Soviet NK-33 is likely the cause of the explosion of the unmanned transport rocket developed by private companies. The Antares rocket accomplished four successful transport operations so far but one of the NK-33 engines exploded during tests. Months ago another privately developed rocket´s launch had to be canceled. The happenings raise the question if the NASA´s strategy of outsourcing development was the right decision.

Unmanned U.S. supply rocket for space station explodes on liftoff Reuters

 

[DriftingSand]

I believe Obama de-funded NASA so they likely had little choice but to outsource.

 

[waltky]

Antares ISS supply rocket explodes during lift-off...

A search for answers after Antares rocket explodes during liftoff
October 29,`14 ~ Officials began an investigation Wednesday into the explosion of an unmanned cargo rocket that burst into flames shortly after liftoff in Virginia on Tuesday night.

There were no casualties or injuries as a result of the explosion, which occurred just seconds after the Antares rocket took off from Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The rocket was intended to carry Orbital Sciences Corp.’s unmanned Cygnus spacecraft — loaded with thousands of pounds of food, water and equipment — to the International Space Station.

The explosive failure, which destroyed a rocket and spacecraft valued at more than $200 million, is a modest setback for commercial companies that took over missions to space after NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011. “Space flight is inherently risky,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Science and Space, said in a statement. “As we push the frontiers of space, there will be setbacks. But our commercial space ventures will ultimately be successful.”

Following the explosion, the Orbital Sciences stock price dropped more than 16 percent Wednesday. The incident has also placed added scrutiny on SpaceX, a competing company that is similarly contracted with NASA to complete cargo missions to the ISS.

Orbital Sciences tried to reassure jittery investors in a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “Orbital has experienced adversity in the past, some of which was more difficult than this,” said Orbital chief executive David Thompson, who also noted that the Wallops Island launch pad didn’t suffer significant damage during the explosion. The company is insured against the launch failure, Thompson said. At this point, Tuesday’s explosion could push back the launch of the next resupply mission, scheduled for early April, by at least three months. In the worst case, it could be up to a year, he said.

MORE

See also:

RIP, Drain Brain: Experiments Lost in the Antares Rocket Explosion
October 29, 2014 ~ When a private rocket exploded just after launch Tuesday (Oct. 28), science experiments developed by students, professional researchers and private companies went up in smoke.

The private spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket was expected to launch the company's unmanned cargo-carrying Cygnus spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Tuesday evening. But about 6 seconds after launch, the Antares rocket exploded, presumably destroying Cygnus' cargo, including 26 tiny Earth-observing satellites and a spacecraft built to test tech that could be used for asteroid mining. (Reportedly, no people were injured as a result of the rocket failure.) "We do want to express our disappointment that we were not able to fulfill our obligation to the International Space Station program and deliver this load of cargo, especially to the researchers who had science on board and the people that were counting on the various hardware and components that were going to the station," Orbital Executive Vice President Frank Culbertson said during a news conference after the rocket failure. [See images of the Antares explosion]

In total, Cygnus was carrying about 4,883 lbs. (2,215 kilograms) of cargo, with about 1,603 lbs. (727 kg) of that devoted to science. The Antares explosion destroyed the Arkyd 3 (A3) spacecraft, a small technology demonstration from the company Planetary Resources. A3 was designed as a precursor to the Arkyd 100 Series — a group of space probes that could be used to hunt for asteroids that might be mined for resources. "As this launch failure and history have demonstrated, spaceflight is inherently risky," Planetary Resources' Stacey Tearne told Space.com via email. "The A3 is the first example of our strategy to use space as our test bed, and to tolerate failures by building success into the development path. With the A3, the Planetary Resources team achieved most of our objectives when we delivered the spacecraft to the launch integration site, and for the past few months, we have been hard at work on our next vehicle, the Arkyd 6 (A6)."

The development timeline should not be affected by the rocket failure, and the company is expecting to launch the A6 spacecraft sometime in 2015, according to Tearne. A fleet of 26 tiny satellites from San Francisco-based Planet Labs was destroyed during the explosion as well. After arriving at the space station, the CubeSats would have been deployed and used to observe Earth from space. "Planet Labs understands the risks of launch," Planet Labs co-founder and CEO Will Marshall wrote of the rocket failure in an Oct. 28 blog post. "Our approach to mitigate these risks is to deploy our fleets of satellites on multiple launch vehicles, from multiple vendors. We also place more satellites in orbit than we require in each launch so that, if satellites fail in orbit, we ensure continuity."

Some of the experiments lost during the explosion would have studied astronauts' health in space. An experiment called "Drain Brain," for instance, would have gathered more data about how astronauts' blood flows in the weightlessness of the space station. The student experiments destroyed in the Cygnus disaster were crafted to investigate a wide variety of studies as part of NASA's Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. The 18 projects included investigations into crystal growth in space, and how microgravity might affect milk's shelf life.

RIP Drain Brain Experiments Lost in the Antares Rocket Explosion

 

[waltky]

Another 'malfunction'...

Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash Kills 1
October 31, 2014 ~ Authorities in the western U.S. state of California say a space tourism rocket has crashed while on a test flight in the Mojave desert, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.

Officials say the injured pilot ejected from the Virgin Galactic commercial spaceship before it crashed Friday. Television images showed parts of SpaceShipTwo scattered amid brush in the desert north of Los Angeles. The CEO of Virgin Galactic -- founded by British billionaire Richard Branson -- said it will work with the relevant authorities to determine the cause of the accident. Branson said on Twitter that he is flying to California immediately.

The company plans to sell trips on SpaceShipTwo to the edge of space, about 100 kilometers above Earth. Passengers would have a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth. More than 500 people have already put down deposits to travel in the spacecraft. Witnesses say the spacecraft crashed after it was released from a plane that carries it to a high altitude.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is seen flying over the Mojave Desert in California

The chief executive of Virgin Galactic, George Whitesides, said space exploration is hard, but said the company will move forward. "The future rests in many ways on hard days like this. We believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks who have been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward, which is what we'll do,'' said Whitesides.

It is the second accident suffered by a private U.S. space company this week. On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial rocket that was supposed to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station exploded seconds after liftoff from a NASA launch pad in the eastern state of Virginia.

Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash Kills 1