In an undated handout screen grab, an unmanned Antares rocket explodes seconds after liftoff at NASA'S Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. (NASA TV via The New York Times)
An unmanned cargo rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded seconds after liftoff Tuesday night.
The Antares rocket, carrying 5,055 pounds of supplies, science experiments and equipment, lifted off on schedule at 6:22 p.m. Eastern time from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. No issues came up during the countdown.
But soon after it rose into the sky, there was a flash of an explosion.
"The ascent stopped," Frank L. Culbertson Jr., executive vice president of Orbital Sciences Corp., the maker of the rocket, said during a news conference Tuesday. "There was some disassembly of the first stage, it looked like, and then it fell to earth."
No one was injured.
Orbital, a company based in Dulles, Virginia, first launched a 14-story-tall Antares rocket on its maiden flight in April last year. It then conducted a demonstration flight to the space station to show NASA the capabilities of the rocket and the cargo spacecraft. Then came two more flights carrying cargo to the space station, part of a program in which NASA has hired private companies to ferry cargo to the space station.
Tuesday's launch would have been the third of eight cargo missions under a $1.9 billion contract.
Orbital will lead an investigation. Culbertson said the company would not launch another Antares rocket until it had identified and corrected the problem.
Orbital is one of two private companies to supply the space station. Space Explorations Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne, California, known as SpaceX, has successfully flown four cargo missions to the space station, the most recent mission ending Saturday.
NASA officials said the failure would not cause immediate issues for the space station, which had adequate supplies to last at least until next spring. A Russian supply rocket is set to launch to the space station on Wednesday, and SpaceX's next cargo mission is scheduled for December.
"We have plenty of capability to support the crew on board," said Michael T. Suffredini, the manager of the space station program.
In 2011, a Russian supply ship failed to reach orbit; space station managers were able to adjust.
By hiring private companies, NASA hoped to reduce costs, improve efficiency and spur a new commercial space agency, and it has taken a similar approach toward launching its astronauts in the future.
Last month, NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to take astronauts to the space station beginning as early as 2017.
However, the failure of the Orbital rocket will likely raise questions about whether NASA has done enough to ensure the reliability of the rockets.
This Antares rocket carried a more powerful second-stage engine for the first time. The cargo spacecraft was to circle in orbit until Sunday before proceeding to the space station. The rocket was also carrying a satellite for Planetary Resources, a startup looking to develop technology for mining asteroids.
The launching was originally scheduled for Monday but was called off because of a boat offshore along the rocket's flight path. Under launch rules, that area must be cleared to ensure safety.
© 2014, The New York Times News Service