An unmanned rocket of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contractor exploded in mid-air just six seconds after lift off in a ball of flame coupled with a booming sound.
Owned by Orbital Science Corporation, the Antares rocket and cargo spacecraft, said to be worth $200 million, took off at Wallops Island in Virginia at exactly 6:22 pm Tuesday night, reports the Daily Mail.
The rocket was carrying about 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments bound for the International Space Station, cites CNN.
The Daily Mail added that the rocket was also carrying "some classified cryptographic equipment."
The explosion was seen by thousands of people along the Virginia coastline. These people even saw the remains of the rocket plummeting back to earth and resulting to even more flames upon impact, CNN detailed.
NASA immediately reported no casualties as a result of the incident and that the only damage brought about by the explosion was limited to the launchpad at Wallops Island, said the Daily Mail.
Frank Culbertson, General Manager of Orbital Science's Advanced Programs Group, said other than the more than $200 million cargo rocket, they still cannot quantify how much damage the explosion has caused on the launchpad or in the facility, reports CNN.
The Antares launch is said to be part of a $1.9 billion private contract to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
NASA Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier was quoted by CNN as saying: "Tonight's events really show the difficulty that it takes for us to do this task of delivering cargo to the space station. It is a really tough business."
The launch team stated that they have not seen any possible problem before the launch so they have yet to determine what caused the explosion.
The Daily Mail said that the mid-air explosion was an accident but the subsequent explosion when the rocket was plummeting down to earth was caused by the self-destruct command to the rocket, explains NASA.
The Antares rocket was scheduled to be launched on Monday night but the attempt was abandoned in the last minute after a sailboat entered the hazard zone area near the launch site, cites CNN.
With a good weather, absence of technical issues on the rocket, and no intrusion on the hazard zone area of the launch site, Tuesday's take off seem a lot better, NASA thought. The agency was wrong as the launch turned out to be a full-blown disaster.
Questions are now being raised on NASA whether space travel is still safe. Officials of the agency said that it is. The rocket explosion was just an accident and accidents do happen.
As a matter of fact, NASA is already preparing two space missions to resupply the space station, notes CNN.
Watch how the Antares cargo rocket explodes in mid-air just seconds after take off:
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