DocM Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 She's powered up and so far on track. Mission status reports from SpaceFlightNow http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/10/26/live-coverage-antares-rocket-set-for-launch-monday-from-virginia/ NASA Wallops UStream channel http://m.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tv-wallops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 Range is red - rogue boat. Coast Guard dispatched. BTW: Chromecast-able. Watching it on the 60" & sound bar :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 Hold at T-12 to clear the range issue. 10 min window. Hmmmm.... New T-0: 22:55;04 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 Scrub due the friggin boat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Could the owner/captain of said boat expect anything from this? Like a fine or at least the bill for that dispatched coast guard ship! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 28, 2014 Author Share Posted October 28, 2014 Dunno. Should as a notice to mariners was posted. Sadly, a lot of inexperienced/drunk/high/stupid "mariners" won't read them or the signal flags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bguy_1986 Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 That didn't go well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spenser.d Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 That didn't go well... No ######. Cool to see, but that really blows. Edit: I know it's their job, but they're impressively calm about the whole ordeal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Whoa... Holy fireball Batman! That looked like it took out some serious pad infrastructure to... Will take Orbital months to clean up and repair! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctebah Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Holy! Good thing it was unmanned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 28, 2014 Author Share Posted October 28, 2014 Oh ####!! Exploded at T+6 seconds. I assume another AJ-26 failure, but this time not on a test stand. Significant property and vehicle damage. No personnel in danger. They're trying to get RD-180's from ULA again, with little luck so far. Better rethink that as they need a replacement engine a LOT sooner than messing with ULA and possible anti-trust lawsuits will get them. With pad and transporter-erector damage one wonders if they can continue. Cygnus on Falcon 9? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurmoth Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Here's video of the explosion: https://vine.co/v/OMrHAxM9r0j Some hot pixels showing up in short wave IR satellite images from rocket explosion fire at Wallops Island, VA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 You can already see the first 'wtf was that?' on one of the engines right at T+0 i think. A hichup/small explosion?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 28, 2014 Author Share Posted October 28, 2014 Could be the end of Antares. This looked like an engine failure. They've rejected some of these Russian motors before, and 2 have self-destructed on the test stand. Earlier they said they want to replace them with RD-180's purchased through ILA, but the latter wouldn't sell them before. And obviously, it needs a different engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Seen some more images of the area, damage to the facity seems quite extensive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShareShiz Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Kaboom FiB3R 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speed3okie Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Virgina! We have a Problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 NASA press conference @8:45 PM Eastern http://public.infozen.cshls.lldns.net/infozen/public/public.m3u8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 The guy that took this video says his ears hurt and his face has a flash burn from the fireball. NSFW: LANGUAGE!! Antares failure with Orb3: FiB3R 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dot Matrix Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 D***. :/ (Sorry for the language.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 A NASA suit mentioned some Cygnus duplicate cargo, especially a nitrogen tank, will be stuffed into Dragon CRS-5 which is on for Dec. 9. He also said it could be rescheduled, but didn't say left or right. The media's also catching on to AJ-26 being a refurbed 40 year old Russian NK-33 engine. That could get interesting on the Hill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 I wonder if Orbital can go on now. And if they can, would they have to refly this mission or would it now just be the 4 that would have otherwise been remaining? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P. Administrators Posted October 29, 2014 Administrators Share Posted October 29, 2014 It used the Soviet era N1 engines that only had failures in its lifetime? Have these engines ever been used successfully? :p Edit: What DocM said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 They've flown 10 refurbed NK-33/AJ-26 engines, 2 demonstration flights and 3 CRS missions, and they've lost 2 on the test stand. If only one failed yesterday that's 3/12 or 25% that have unzipped themselves. Dunno how many failed quality checks. Russia restarted production of NK-33 and is flying them on the Soyuz-2-1v. One Soyuz-2-1v stage blew up on the test stand due to a "software error," one test stand burn stopped 52 seconds prematurely and there has been 1 launch success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherITguy Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 DocM, correct me if I am wrong, but the NK-33/AJ-26 was part of the original 1960's N1 Soviet moon rocket. Cygnus is using tech from the 60's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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