Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Cause sought for Antares space-supply rocket explosion

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: October 29, 2014 11:31:30 AM EDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Cause sought for Antares space-supply rocket explosion

October 29, 2014 10:27

Resupply ship routed to ISS blows up after takeoff from U.S. launch site (Part 2)
MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - An Antares rocket coupled with a Cygnus resupply ship routed to the International Space Station (ISS) blew up seconds after it blasted off from a launch site in Virginia, the United States.
The NASA website was broadcasting the takeoff.
The rocket crashed approximately ten seconds after the launch while the first stage's engines were running. Judging by the video, an engine exploded.
The Antares first stage is made in Ukraine. It is powered by upgraded Soviet rocket engines NK-33.
A source in the Russian rocket and space industry told Interfax-AVN the explosion of the Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus spaceship would complicate the supplies to the U.S. segment of the International Space Station.
"Cygnus was supposed to bring about 2.5 tonnes of cargo for ISS American crewmembers - water, oxygen, food, equipment and fuel. The mishap thwarted those plans," the source said.
He noted that the ISS had certain reserves of food and water, and another U.S. cargo spaceship, a SpaceX Dragon, would go to the ISS in December. It will be propelled by a different launch vehicle and take off from a different launch site.
"It seems that the Antares rocket crash has seriously damaged the launch pad. It is unlikely that the consequences will be cleaned up rapidly. In my opinion, the next launch from there will be possible no earlier than in spring or summer of next year. So, it is possible that the Americans may ask Russia for a [Progress] resupply ship to deliver cargo to their segment," the source said.
He recalled that a similar request was made after the U.S. space shuttle wreck.
In turn, NASA said that the failure to deliver the cargo would have no effect on the ISS crew.
"The crew of the International Space Station is in no danger of running out of food or other critical supplies," says a statement posted by NASA.
"While NASA is disappointed that Orbital Sciences' third contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station was not successful today, we will continue to move forward toward the next attempt once we fully understand today's mishap," the statement reads.
"Today's launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station," it says.
U.S. resupply ships have twice delivered cargo to the International Space Station.
Too
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Antares rocket with U.S. cargo spacecraft Cygnus explodes on launch

October 29, 4:09 UTC+3
Cygnus was to deliver to the International Space Station more than 2 tonnes of payload, including food, equipment and materials for scientific experiments
WASHINGTON, October 29. /TASS/. The Antares rocket with the American cargo spacecraft Cygnus exploded during blastoff from NASA launch facility on the Wallops Island near the Virginia coast on Tuesday.
The NASA website was transmitting a live broadcast of the rocket launch. The explosion occurred immediately after the liftoff at 18:23 pm, local time (01:23 am, Moscow time, October 29).
There were no immediate reports about casualties or damage to the spaceport facilities. NASA said a special commission comprising representatives of NASA and Orbital Sciences will be formed to investigate the catastrophe.
Cygnus was to loiter in orbit until Nov. 2, then fly itself to the station so astronauts can use a robotic crane to snare the capsule and attach it to a berthing port. The ISS, a $100 billion research laboratory owned and operated by 15 nations, flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth.
In addition to food, supplies and equipment, the Cygnus spacecraft was loaded with more than 1,600 pounds (725 kg) of science experiments, including an investigation to chemically analyze meteors as they burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

NASA probing Antares rocket crash during lift-off in Virginia

October 29, 9:44 UTC+3
The Cygnus, equipped with an AJ-26 engine, a rebuilt version of Soviet NK-33, was to deliver to the International Space Station (ISS) more than 2 tons of payload

NEW YORK, October 29. /TASS/. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is investigating the cause of the explosion of the Antares rocket with the US cargo spacecraft Cygnus during the blastoff from the Wallops Island launch facility in Virginia.
The unmanned Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff at 22:22 GMT on Monday (01:23am Moscow time on Tuesday).
The Cygnus, equipped with an AJ-26 engine, a rebuilt version of Soviet NK-33, was to deliver to the International Space Station (ISS) more than 2 tons of payload, including food, equipment and materials for scientific experiments.
Frank Culbertson, the vice president of the Orbital Sciences company that manufactured the Antares rocket, said at a press conference on Wednesday that an investigation board has been formed to determine the cause of the incident.
The Antares engine had earlier passed all the necessary testing, including in Russia, which found no problems, Culbertson said. "It is far too early to know the details of what happened," the company's statement also quoted Culbertson as saying. "We will conduct a thorough investigation immediately to determine the cause of this failure and what steps can be taken to avoid a repeat of this incident," he said.
Culbertson said the explosion has no harmful impact on the environment, as the Antares rocket was designed to burn a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene shortly after the launch.
The US space agency said in a statement NASA "will continue to move forward toward the next attempt once we fully understand today's mishap."
The crew of the ISS, a $100 billion research laboratory owned and operated by 15 nations, is in no danger of running out of food or other critical supplies.
"Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback. Today's launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station," NASA said.
The Orbital Sciences company said it will resume rocket launches only after the causes of the blast are found.

Antares rocket explosion to hamper scientific research — NASA
October 29, 10:59 UTC+3
The unmanned Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from the Wallops Island launch facility in Virginia

NEW YORK, October 29. /TASS/. The crash of the Antares carrier rocket with the US cargo spacecraft Cygnus is not expected to negatively affect the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) in the short term, but will somehow hinder the scientific research, NASA spokesperson Jay Bolden told TASS.
During the first couple of weeks, the crew of the ISS, a $100 billion research laboratory owned and operated by 15 nations, will not have any difficulties. However, the crash will certainly affect the research that the crew planned to carry out using the equipment that was part of the cargo, he said.
Cygnus, equipped with an AJ-26 engine, a rebuilt version of Soviet NK-33, was to deliver to the International Space Station (ISS) more than 2 tons of payload, including food, equipment and materials for scientific experiments.
In particular, Cygnus was loaded with more than 1,600 pounds (725 kg) of science experiments, including an investigation to chemically analyze meteors as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
The spacecraft also carried a prototype satellite owned by Redmond, Washington-based startup Planetary Resources Inc., which is developing technology to mine asteroids.
The unmanned Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from the Wallops Island launch facility in Virginia at 22:22 GMT on Monday (01:23am Moscow time on Tuesday).
Manager of NASA's ISS Program Michael Suffredini said, "We keep enough on board to keep going for 4-6 months." An investigation board has been formed to determine the cause of the mishap.

©   2014 TASS

Antares rocket explodes, destroys station cargo ship
10/28/2014 11:25 PM
Editor's note...
Posted at 08:20 PM EDT, 07/28/14: Orbital Sciences rocket, station cargo ship, lost in spectacular launch mishap
Updated at 11:25 PM EDT, 07/28/14: Rocket mishap no immediate threat to station; cause not yet known
By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

An Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket making only its fifth flight exploded seconds after launch from the Virginia coast Tuesday, erupting in a spectacular fireball and destroying an uncrewed Cygnus cargo ship in a disheartening failure for NASA's commercial space station resupply program.The mishap occurred about 15 seconds after liftoff from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility as the 139-foot-tall two-stage rocket climbed away on the power of its two Russian-built first-stage engines."We have ignition... and we have liftoff of the Antares Orb 3 mission to bring Cygnus on its third (resupply) mission to the ISS," said NASA's launch commentator as the Antares lifted off. "Main engines at 108 percent, attitude nominal."

An Orbital Sciences Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus cargo ship bound for the International Space Station suffered a catastrophic malfunction seconds after liftoff Tuesday from Wallops Island, Va. (Credit: NASA)

At roughly that moment, the exhaust plume suddenly intensified, followed an instant later by a detonation of some sort at the base of the rocket. The booster, engulfed in flames, then slowly fell back to Earth, exploding in a titanic conflagration as its remaining liquid oxygen and refined kerosene propellants ignited in a huge fireball.At impact, flaming debris shot away into the night sky like a fireworks display, some of it presumably from solid propellant used in the rocket's second stage. Scattered fires erupted around the launch pad and a towering cloud of smoke climbed into the night sky.While property damage appeared extensive, Orbital officials said there were no injuries.It was not clear watching video replays of the launching what might have gone wrong, whether it involved one or both Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 first stage engines or some other system.An AJ26 engine being test fired last May for an Antares flight next year suffered a catastrophic failure 30 seconds into a planned 54-second burn. After a detailed failure investigation, Orbital managers cleared the powerplants for use in downstream missions based on corrective actions implemented in the wake of the failure.

The Antares rocket falls back to Earth, engulfed in flames. (Credit: Stephen Clark/SaceflightNow)

Frank Culbertson, a former shuttle commander and space station crew member who serves as Orbital's executive vice president, said engineers had not yet had time to examine telemetry in any detail and "we don't know whether the engine was involved in this or not. That's something we'll try to determine as quickly as possible."The rocket's self-destruct system apparently was triggered at some point, but Culbertson said he did not yet know the timing of the events or how that might have contributed to the rocket's breakup. He warned the public not to pick up any debris that might be found in the area, saying unburned propellant could pose a threat.In any case, the loss was a major setback for Orbital's plans to establish routine space station access under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA calling for delivery of 20 tons of hardware over at least eight flights through 2016.It also marked a major setback for the space station program, which is attempting to fill in the void left by the space shuttle's retirement, using commercially developed cargo ships to carry supplies and equipment once carried by the manned orbiter. More than 5,000 pounds of cargo and supplies, including research hardware, student experiments, spare parts, food and crew supplies, 32 small nanosatellites and other gear, were lost in the mishap.

The doomed rocket explodes in a fireball of burning propellant. (Credit: Stephen Clark/SaceflightNow)

"It's a tough time to lose a launch vehicle like this and it's payload," Culbertson said. "It's not as tragic as losing a life, and so we're very happy to report there were no injuries ... and all we lost was hardware."That hardware, however, is very important and very high value to the company and to our customers. Our team worked very hard for this mission. However, something went wrong and we will find out what that is. We'll determine the root cause, and we will correct that, and we will come back and fly here at Wallops again, hopefully in the very near future."Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said nothing critical was lost in the mishap."As a program, of course, we manage the station to protect for just such an event should it occur," he told reporters in a post-flight news conference. "Therefore, we keep logistics on board the ISS to protect us for about four to six months in the event other logistics vehicles can't make it to ISS. So in fact, our logistics on board today, if no other spacecraft showed up, takes us well into next year. So from a consumables standpoint, we're in good shape."He said NASA would work with researchers to get experiment hardware rebuilt and relaunched while assembling more spare parts to replace components lost in the accident."But the station's in great shape, the crew's in good shape, we've got plenty of work for them to do on orbit and plenty of supplies on orbit to keep them going for quite some time," Suffredini said. "So while this event is very unfortunate, we will support the Orbital team as they work through their anomaly and continue to operate station well into the next several months while we wait for Orbital to return to flight."Orbital's Antares/Cygnus cargo vehicle is one of two resupply systems funded by NASA in the wake of the shuttle's retirement.Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, holds a $1.6 billion contract for at least 12 missions to deliver 44,000 pounds of cargo to the station. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship remain operational, with the next two resupply flights planned for December and February."Sorry to hear about the @OrbitalSciences launch," SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk tweeted. "Hope they recover soon."The Russians, meanwhile, planned to launch a Progress supply craft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Wednesday.How the Antares failure might impact NASA's resupply strategy in the near term is not yet known. While a high-pressure nitrogen tank needed to top off tanks in the station's Quest airlock was lost with the Cygnus, the station is not expected to suffer any immediate problems."While NASA is disappointed that Orbital Sciences' third contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station was not successful today, we will continue to move forward toward the next attempt once we fully understand today's mishap," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief of space operations, said in a statement."Orbital has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first two missions to the station earlier this year, and we know they can replicate that success. ... Today's launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station."

A long-distance view of the Antares mishap. (Credit: NASA)

The next Antares/Cygnus mission is currently planned for April, but that flight could be delayed pending the results of an investigation into the failure Thursday.Tuesday's launching went off on time at 6:22 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), roughly the moment Earth's rotation moved the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit.After a final round of computer checks to verify the first stage engines were working properly, the Antares was released from its launching stand at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and the rocket began climbing away.The initial seconds of the ascent appeared normal as the booster climbed straight up, its first stage engines burning oxygen and RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel. But just 12 to 15 seconds or so after liftoff, a catastrophic failure occurred, appearing to originate at the base of the rocket."What we know so far is pretty much what everybody saw on the video," Culbertson said. "The ascent stopped, there was some, let's say, 'disassembly' of the first stage, it looked like, then it fell to Earth."We don't have access to all the data yet because of the way the accident investigation proceeds. We lock it all down and then we go through a very methodical process to recreate that data and evaluate it. So we don't have any early indications of exactly what might have failed, and we need some time to take a look at that, from a video and telemetry standpoint."The AJ26 first stage engines originally were developed for the Soviet Union's ill-fated N-1 moon rocket. When that program was cancelled after multiple launch failures, the engines were put in storage. In the 1990s, Aerojet Rocketdyne bought about 40 of the powerplants and modified them for use aboard U.S. rockets.The May 22 test failure "obviously sparked a very thorough investigation led by Aerojet Rocketdyne, our engine supplier, supported fully by Orbital with a lot of help by NASA," Mike Pinkston, Orbital's Antares program manager, said before the company's third resupply flight in July. "That was a lengthy process."While details were not provided to the media, the engines used in July and in Tuesday's launching were subjected to exhaustive pre-flight checks and tests to make sure they were healthy and ready for flight. "It's an extensively tested engine that is very robust and rugged and it goes through extensive testing by a team at (NASA's) Stennis Space Center before it's ever installed on the rocket and used as the powerplant," Culbertson said."These engines were taken through the normal acceptance testing and pressure testing, etc., both at Stennis and here at Wallops prior to the launch. We didn't see any anomalies or anything that would indicate there were problems with the engine."
© 2014 William Harwood/CBS News

Gallery: Antares rocket explodes

http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/10/28/gallery-antares-rocket-explodes/

A sequence of images from the NASA TV broadcast of the ill-fated launch of the Antares rocket.

Video: Antares rocket explodes

http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/10/28/video-antares-rocket-explodes/

The moment an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded moments after lifting off carrying a Cygnus cargo craft bound for the International space Station.

© 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.

A space station resupply rocket blew up shortly after launch
October 28, 2014 | By Eric Berger

A private rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station blew up six seconds into its flight on Tuesday evening.
The Antares rocket, built by Orbital Sciences, was making its third resupply mission to the space station. It was the first failure in five launches of this particular rocket.
The rocket carried no people, and there were no reports of deaths or injuries at the launch site. However there was considerable property damage at the launch pad at Wallops, in Virginia.
The Antares carried 5,000 pounds of food and other supplies for astronauts on board the station, including scientific experiments, including some developed by high school students in Houston. Here's a detailed manifest of what was on board the rocket.
It's not clear how the loss of this supply vehicle will affect station operations in the long run. NASA has several supply lines open, including SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, the Russian Progress vehicle as well as international partners. A source at NASA told me that, for the time being, is "good" on supplies.
Orbital has contracted with NASA to perform eight resupply missions.
The loss of the Antares rocket offers a grim reminder that rocketry is hard, and things can always go wrong.
© The Hearst Corporation

Cause sought for space-supply rocket explosion
By BROCK VERGAKIS and MARCIA DUNN

ATLANTIC, Va. (AP) — The owners of a commercial supply ship that exploded moments after liftoff promised to find the cause of the failed delivery mission to the International Space Station and warned residents to not touch any debris they might stumble across from the craft, which was carrying hazardous materials.
Crews planned to hit the ground at daybreak Wednesday to search for pieces of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo module, which blew up Tuesday night just moments after lifting off from NASA's launch complex at Wallops Island, Virginia, said Bill Wrobel, director of the facility.
The cargo ship was carrying 5,000 pounds of experiments and equipment for NASA, as well as prepackaged meals and freeze-dried Maryland crabcakes for a Baltimore-born astronaut who's been in orbit for five months. All of the lost materials will be replaced and flown to the 260-mile-high space station, NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said. He said astronauts at the station currently have enough supplies to last until spring.
The accident could draw scrutiny to the space agency's growing reliance on private U.S. companies in the post-shuttle era. NASA is paying billions of dollars to Virginia-based Orbital Sciences and the California-based SpaceX company to make station deliveries, and it's counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start flying U.S. astronauts to the orbiting lab as early as 2017. It was the fourth Cygnus bound for the orbiting lab; the first flew just over a year ago. SpaceX is scheduled to launch another Dragon supply ship from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in December.
Until Tuesday, all of the supply missions by Orbital Sciences and SpaceX had been near-flawless.
President Barack Obama has long championed this commercial space effort. He was in Wisconsin for a campaign rally and was kept informed.
Orbital Sciences' executive vice president Frank Culbertson said the company carried insurance on the mission, which he valued at more than $200 million, not counting repair costs. The explosion hit Orbital Science's stock, which fell more than 15 percent in after-hours trading.
By coincidence, the Russian Space Agency was proceeding with its own supply run Wednesday, planned well before the U.S. mishap.
View gallery

An unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket explodes shortly after takeoff at Wallops Flight …
John Logdson, former space policy director at George Washington University, said the explosion was unlikely to be a major setback to NASA's commercial space plans. But he noted it could derail Orbital Sciences for a while given the company has just one launch pad and the accident occurred right above it.
At a news conference Tuesday night, Culbertson and others said everyone at the launch site had been accounted for and the damage appeared to be limited to the facilities.
He noted that the cargo module was carrying hazardous materials and warned residents to avoid any contact with debris.
"Certainly don't go souvenir hunting along the beach," he said.
Things began to go wrong 10 to 12 seconds into the flight and it was all over in 20 seconds when what was left of the rocket came crashing down, Culbertson said. He said he believes the range-safety staff sent a destruct signal before it hit the ground, but was not certain at this point.
This was the second launch attempt for the mission. Monday evening's try was thwarted by a stray sailboat in the rocket's danger zone. The restrictions are in case of just such an accident that occurred Tuesday.
Culbertson said the top priority will be repairing the launch pad "as quickly and safely as possible."
Rocket Explosion Under Investigation Play video

"We will not fly until we understand the root cause," he said, adding that it was too early to guess how long it might take to make the rocket repairs and fix the launch pad. It will take a few weeks, alone, to assess the damage and extent of potential repairs.
Culbertson also stressed that it was too soon to know whether the Russian-built engines, modified for the Antares and extensively tested, were to blame.
"We will understand what happened — hopefully soon — and we'll get things back on track," Culbertson assured his devastated team. "We've all seen this happen in our business before, and we've all seen the teams recover from this, and we will do the same."
The Wallops facility is small compared to NASA's major centers like those in Florida, Texas and California, but vaulted into the public spotlight in September 2013 with a NASA moonshot and the first Cygnus launch to the space station.
Michelle Murphy, an innkeeper at the Garden and Sea Inn, New Church, Virginia, where launches are visible across a bay about 16 miles away, saw the explosion.
"It was scary. Everything rattled," she said. "There were two explosions. The first one we were ready for. The second one we weren't. It shook the inn, like an earthquake. It was extremely intense."
Among the instruments that were lost from the cargo module: a meteor tracker and 32 mini research satellites, along with numerous experiments compiled by schoolchildren.
The two Americans, three Russians and one German on the orbiting space station were watching a live video feed from Mission Control and saw the whole thing unfold, Suffredini said.
___
Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington and Associated Press Writer Alex Sanz in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Private Rocket Explosion Sparks Investigation by NASA, Orbital Sciences
by Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer   |   October 29, 2014 01:00am ET

The explosion of a commercial Antares rocket just seconds after lifting off from Virginia's Eastern Shore Tuesday night has touched off an in-depth investigation into the launch failure by NASA and the rocket's builder, the Orbital Sciences Corporation.
The Antares rocket exploded in a massive fireball just after its 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT) launch on Tuesday evening (Oct. 28) from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. The rocket was carrying an unmanned Cygnus spacecraft — also built by Orbital — that was packed with about 2.5 tons of supplies for astronauts on the International Space Station.
Orbital Sciences, based in Dulles, Virginia, will lead the investigation into the Antares rocket launch failure, with the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA supporting the company's analysis. No one was injured during the rocket explosion, according to NASA and Orbital, and it is too early to tell what caused the failure. [See photos of the Antares rocket explosion]
An Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes in flames during a failed launch on Oct. 28, 2014 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. The rocket was carrying an unmanned Cygnus spacecraft filled with 5,000 lbs. of supplies for the International Space Station.Credit: NASA TV
View full size image
"As far as the next steps for Antares, we will not fly until we understand the root cause and the corrective action necessary to ensure this doesn't happen again," Orbital Sciences executive vice president Frank Culbertson said during a news conference after the rocket failure. "It's way too early to tell how long that might take. We will go through the proper processes. We will do it professionally and thoroughly … But I can assure you that we will find out what went wrong. We will correct it, and we will fly again."
The Cygnus spacecraft was carrying about 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kilograms) of food, science supplies and other items when the rocket failure occurred. If the launch had gone off as planned, it would have kicked off Orbital Sciences' third resupply mission to the space station under a $1.9 billion contract for eight flights to the orbiting outpost for NASA.
How Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft service the space station. See how Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rockets works here.Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist
View full size image
Another company, the California-based firm SpaceX, has a separate contract for $1.6 billion to fly 12 robotic cargo delivery missions using its own Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX has flown four of those missions so far.
Orbital Sciences representatives do not yet know if the failure is related to the failed test of an AJ26 rocket engine (the type of rocket engines used in the Antares first stage) last May.
While Tuesday's launch failure is disappointing, the crewmembers on the space station have more than enough supplies onboard the orbiting outpost, according to Mike Suffredini, the head of NASA's International Space Station program office.
"We did inform the crew immediately after it [the launch failure] occurred," Suffredini said during the news conference. "We actually had the feed up to them, so they were witness to it. They were disappointed … Of course, they are well aware that they have plenty of resources on orbit to get along for some time and the vehicles that are getting up there in the near-term."
Russian officials are planning to launch an unmanned Progress cargo ship to the space station from Russia in the wee hours of Wednesday morning (Oct. 29), and SpaceX's fifth cargo mission is scheduled to launch in early December.
Two members of Congress also expressed their feelings about the failed launch.
"We add our disappointment to the thousands in the space community who worked tirelessly in support of Tuesday evening's launch attempt at Wallops Island," Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) said in a joint statement. "We are relieved to hear there are no reported fatalities, and we anticipate learning more about the circumstances surrounding the launch failure in the near future."
Smith is the chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, while Palazzo serves as the chair on the committee's Space subcommittee.
Editor's note: NASA officials are urging residents of the area around the launch site to keep away from any rocket debris that might wash up on shore or be found on land. If you think you may have found pieces of the rocket, please call the incident response team at (757) 824-1295.

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