OnTuesday October 28 , 2014 , an Orbital ATK Antares rocket experienced a failure just seconds into its launch in Virginia . The rocket later crashed back to Earth in a ball of fire and exploded , providing quite the spectacle at the metre .
Now , NASAhas releaseda host of novel high - resolution pic from the event . They were brand on the agency ’s Flickr history , follow therelease of a reportinto the accident last week . The photos showcase the moment the Antares rocket pass out in a catastrophic blaze of glory .
The theme last week found that an explosion in a liquid oxygen turbopump on one of the two main AJ-26 engines was creditworthy for the failure , causing the rocket salad to recede driving force and doss down back to Earth . The grounds of the locomotive engine failure is not clear , although a pattern fault or debris are likely culprits .
The skyrocket was unmanned , but it had been carrying a Cygnus shipment spacecraft to the International Space Station ( ISS ) , among other petty payloads . This would have been the third flight of the Cygnus family to the ISS .
Since the accident Orbital has celebrate its fleet of Antares rockets grounded while the investigation into the error proceed , but Cygnus is set to fly again on an Atlas V arugula next calendar month onDecember 3 . The Antares skyrocket is not due to wing again untilMarch 2016 .
While the icon are spectacular , they also serve as a admonisher that spaceflight can be difficult , although considering this was just one of about 90 successful launches last twelvemonth , such a unsuccessful person is an unusual person rather than the norm . And after all , it is garden rocket science .
More image are usable onNASA ’s Flickr page .
All images courtesy of NASA / Joel Kowsky ( FlickrCC BY - NC - ND 2.0 . )
