NASA to assess rocket explosion damage

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – NASA officials are waiting for daylight to get a better view of the damage left behind after an unmanned rocket exploded shortly after takeoff yesterday evening.

Six seconds into the flight, the spacecraft bound for the International Space Station blew up, scattering flames and debris all over the Virginia launch site.

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NASA held a news conference Tuesday night saying they're thankful that no one was hurt and they will have to determine the root cause of the fiery failure.

The majority of the damage seems to be to the launch facility in Wallops Island, Virginia where there was apparently no sign of any trouble until the rocket blew up.

Crowds of people watched from a distance as the rocket exploded Tuesday. It was heading to the International Space Station to deliver supplies to the six astronauts currently living on the ISS.

Mike Suffrendini is NASA's ISS Program Manager and spoke Tuesday night about the affect the rocket explosion would have on the astronauts living in space. He said if no other vehicle showed up, the crew could survive off what they have until March.

"We have plenty of supplies onboard of the space station. The crew has all the food, water and other consumables necessary to support them well into next year," said Suffrendini.

The damage seemed to be limited to the launch facility, but still brings back bad memories for many past failed launches. NASA said it's fortunate no one was hurt but they also said the rocket was carrying valuable materials.
SOT - NA-109TU (Frank Culbertson/Orbital Sciences Corp.) "It's a tough time to lose launch vehicle like this and it's payload. It's not as tragic as losing a life associated with it and so, we're very happy to report that there were no injuries and the safeguards both in-flights and on the ground worked as they should have and all we lost was hardware. That hardware, however, it's very important and very high value to the company and to our customers," said Frank Culbertson of Orbital Sciences Corp.

The complex where it happened is one of two companies NASA is paying billions of dollars to make deliveries to the ISS.

Among the materials the rocket was carrying: 5,000 pounds of equipment, 32 mini research satellites and numerous experiments compiled by some of the nation's school children.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson spoke out about the explosion.

"Space flight is risky business and we're going to have set backs and we had a setback tonight. But the crew on the international space station is in no danger. They have plenty of supplies, as a matter of fact, later tonight a Russian Progress flight with additional supplies is launching from Kazhakstan to the Internationl Spacd Station," said Nelson.

Locally it was decided nearly a year ago that Cecil Airport is becoming Cecil Spaceport. Satellites are set to launch from the old Navy base on the Westside by late 2016. They will be horizontal launches, not vertical like that of rockets like Tuesday night's.