NASA: Resupply explosion won't jeopardize space station

The fiery explosion that destroyed an unmanned commercial supply rocket and set off a scramble to determine what happened won't jeopardize operations at the International Space Station, NASA said.

"We're in good shape," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator of Human Exploration and Operations. "There was no cargo that was absolutely critical."

The Antares rocket blew up moments after liftoff Tuesday at NASA's space launch facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, the space agency said.

The launch, intended to deliver 5,000 pounds of science and research materials, crew supplies, 1,300 pounds of food and 1,400 pounds of hardware, was Orbital Sciences Corp.'s third resupply mission under contract with NASA, according to NASA's mission overview. The Cygnus spacecraft was intended to spend more than a month attached to the space station.

The lost materials will be replaced and flown to the 260-mile-high space station, NASA said, adding that astronauts at the station currently have enough supplies to last until spring.

The Antares rocket's failure leaves SpaceX as the only U.S. company able to fly cargo to the orbiting laboratory for the near future, raising the stakes of SpaceX's next launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., which is planned no earlier than Dec. 9.

NASA and Orbital Sciences were gathering data to determine the cause of Tuesday's failure, the space agency said. No injuries were reported.

"There has been a vehicle anomaly," Orbital Sciences said on its Twitter feed. It added later in a statement, "The vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure."

"It is far too early to know the details of what happened," said Frank Culbertson, Orbital's executive vice president and general manager of its Advanced Programs Group.

"We will not fly until we understand the root cause."

Culbertson said he believes the range-safety staff sent a destruct signal to the rocket after it encountered problems and before it hit the ground, but he was not certain. Bill Wrobel, director of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, said crews were letting the fire burn out.

The rocket had been scheduled for takeoff on Monday night, but the launch was postponed when a boat entered a hazard area down range. The launch was to have begun a fourth space station delivery for the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences.

Among the cargo were more than a dozen student research projects, including an experiment from students at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart in Houston to test the performance of pea shoot growth in space.

NASA is paying the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences and the California-based SpaceX company to keep the space station stocked in the post-shuttle era. This is the first disaster in that effort.

From USATODAY.COM