By Sherrie Chen
An unmanned rocket carried 5,055 pounds of supplies, including science experiences and equipment to the International Space Station exploded several seconds after liftoff on the night of Oct.28th.
The Antares rocket lifted off at 6:22 p.m. from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Soon after rising into the sky, the rocket exploded. Luckily, there was no one injured.
Frank L.Culbertson Jr., the executive vice president of Orbital Sciences Corporation, who was the maker of this rocket, said: “There was some disassembly of the first stage, it looked like, and then it fell to earth.”
The explored rocket was not a NASA rocket but was owned by Orbital Sciences Corporation which was one of two private companies that hold contracts with the agency to launch supplies to the International Space Station.
Orbital will lead an investigation and Mr. Culbertson said the company would not launch another rocket until it had identified and corrected the problem. However, this private company has not offered any explanation for the failure yet. But the commentators have suggested that the age of the engine offer a clue.
Dr Robert Massey , works in the Royal Astronomical Society said:”This is not the first time a rocket has failed at launch and it probably will not be the last. We just have to accept that there is risk in doing this.”
Even if the design of the craft is good , there will still be errors in construction in the electronics. Something as simple as a loose bolt in the engine can lead to catastrophic failure.Quality control is designed to catch such mistakes, but occasionally a component will simply fail for unpredictable reasons.
