Re: Cygnus spaceship explodes on launchpad in Virginia: NASA
A SPECIAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE THE ANTARES CRASH
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A SPECIAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE THE ANTARES CRASH - News - Society - Russian Radio
An accident has occurred at the NASA spaceport. 6 seconds after its launching, the carrier rocket Antares exploded with the American cargo ship Cygnus on board. The ship was supposed to deliver to the ISS about 2 tons of cargo for the US segment of the station, including scientific equipment, oxygen and provisions.
The explosion was witnessed by hundreds and thousands of people worldwide. Official website of the US National Aerospace Agency (NASA) was broadcasting the launch live. Immediately after take-off, the rocket caught fire and crashed. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but expensive equipment got destroyed and the accident has inflicted serious damage to the spaceport on the Wallops Island situated on the Atlantic Ocean.
Judging by the video, problems may have arisen at the first stage of the rocket's engine. The engine of Antares had passed all tests at the checking stage and no problems were reported, declared Frank Culbertson, vice president of the company-manufacturer Orbital Sciences.
"We can presently judge only by the video which has been seen by all. The ascent of the rocket ceased, and after that, it can be said, a ripping of the first stage took place and then it fell on the ground. We do not have access to the complete data at present, but as soon as the opportunity arises, we will begin to restore events and start evaluating them".
A Special Commission, which will investigate the circumstances and causes of the rocket's explosion, has already been formed. Reasons that caused the accident will be discussed on the 4th of November at a meeting between the heads of space agencies, including NASA and the Roscosmos – the Russian Space Agency.
The engines installed on Antares are of Soviet design. They were created by the designer Nikolai Kuznetsov in the 70's of the last century for the realization of the Soviet "lunar program". When the program closed down, the engines were placed in a preserved stage. And in the 1990's, utilization of the NC-33 was reconsidered and demonstrated to foreign specialists. The American company Aerojet bought 40 pieces, but decided to upgrade them to fit into their rockets. After serious alterations, the modified engines were named AJ-26. Between Aerojet and the American company Orbital Sciences, a contract was signed for the supply of 20 engines NK-33 / AJ-26, two of which were installed on the crashed Antares rocket. And, production of the first stage of the engines and fuel systems was done at the Ukrainian design bureau "Yuzhnoe" from the city of Dnepropetrovsk.
The exploding of the Antares has placed the further transfer of commercialization of the US space program under question. After NASA abandoned reusable shuttles, identifying them as too expensive, space transportation was passed into private hands. The Antares carrier and the space-ship Cygnus were built by the company Orbital Sciences. Last year, it successfully completed the first test flight to the ISS, after which NASA signed a contract worth 1.9 billion dollars with this company to enable eight launches of the "truck-loads" for three years. The current launch was the fourth.
As assured by the agency, accident of the "truck-loads" will not affect the work of the US segment of the ISS. The stockpile of food and water at the station is adequate. Of course, the astronauts were nevertheless upset: they were left without gifts from home and without the promised burgers with shrimps. But if launches of American cargo ships of NASA do not resume soon, the US will have to request Russia to facilitate this. The subsequent launch of the Russian ship "Progress" took place on Wednesday, 9 hours after the Antares crash.
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A SPECIAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE THE ANTARES CRASH - News - Society - Russian Radio
