Spotlight: U.S. cargo rocket explodes seconds after launch

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 -- An unmanned cargo rocket operated by private U.S. firm Orbital Sciences Corp. exploded Tuesday in midair seconds after its launch, an apparent blow to America's nascent commercial space industry.

The Antares rocket carrying the company's Cygnus spacecraft blew up six seconds after its liftoff at 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT) from U.S. space agency NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.

TV footage showed flames rising into the sky, after the rocket fell back directly to the launchpad.

There were no casualties, and property damage on the ground was limited to the southern end of the Wallops Island, Orbital said, describing the blast as "a catastrophic failure."

The Virginia-based company has formed an anomaly investigation board, saying it will work in close coordination with all appropriate government agencies to determine the cause of the mishap.

"It is far too early to know the details of what happened," Frank Culbertson, Orbital's executive vice president said in a statement. "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."

Later, Culbertson, also a former NASA astronaut, told reporters during a conference call that it's "a tough time" to lose a launch vehicle like this and its payload.

"Something went wrong and we will find out what that is. We will determine the root cause and we will correct that and we will come back here and fly at Wallops again," he said.

A statement from NASA said the space agency is "disappointed" about the failure, stressing that the crew of the International Space Station is "in no danger of running out of food or other critical supplies."

U.S. media reported the loss could rekindle debates over the U.S. space agency's reliance on commercial spacecraft for astronaut-carrying missions, even though Orbital was not involved in that business.

But in an apparent effort to comfort the company, William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, said Orbital has "demonstrated extraordinary capabilities" in its first two missions to the station earlier this year.

"We know they can replicate that success. Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback," he said. "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."

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space, said in a statement that despite "setbacks," "our commercial space ventures will ultimately be successful."

Cygnus is carrying 5,050 pounds (2,290 kg) of supplies for its third cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. It's also the first nighttime launch of the spacecraft.

One of the new experiments on board is the so-called Drain Brain investigation, a study that will try to determine how blood flows from the brain down to the heart in the absence of gravity.

Also on board is a device called the Meteor Composition Determination (Meteor), which would enable the first space-based observations of meteors entering Earth's atmosphere.

The mission also includes a multitude of student researches.

The rocket was originally set to be launched on Monday, but a boat which sailed into the restricted launch area caused NASA to postpone it until Tuesday.

This mission is the third of eight Orbital flights NASA contracted with the company to resupply the space station, and the fourth trip by Antares and Cygnus to the orbiting laboratory.

Besides Orbital, NASA has also signed a deal with another private company called SpaceX to supply cargo to the space station. All previous supply missions by Orbital and SpaceX have gone smoothly.