The explosion of anOrbital Sciencesrocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station signaled more than the loss of a $200 million mission on Tuesday. The incident marked the first disaster of a commercial resupply mission to the space station since NASA put the responsibility in the hands of private U.S. contractors. Itsa turn of events that will likely leave the supply runs in the hands of Orbitals competitor SpaceX and Russiain the near future.
The Antares rocket owned by Orbital Sciences was originally scheduled to carry about 2,200 kilograms of supplies to the six astronauts currently stationed aboard the space station, according to BBC News. But the rocket faltered just 15 seconds after liftoff,fell back to Earth, and exploded in an infernoon Oct. 28. Click Orlando reported that the force of the explosion broke windows and damaged ceiling tiles ofshops and restaurants several miles from the launch site at the NASA Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.
Evidence suggests the failure initiated in the first stage after which the vehicle lost its propulsive capability and fell back to the ground impacting near, but not on, the launch pad, according to anOrbital Sciences statement on 30 October.
TheAntares rocket carriedsupplies that included 600 kilograms of food such as pre-packaged meals and freeze-dried crab cakes,BBC Newspoints out. Other cargo consisted of experimental equipment for testing blood flow to the human brain, understanding how space travel affects the human bodys immune system,analyzing meteorsand studying the growth of pea shoots in orbital conditions.
Luckily, the space station has enoughsupplies to last for a period of four to six months, a NASA officialsaid in a CBS News interview. That means the astronauts should be able to hold out well into the next year even if no other resupply spacecraft arrived. Russias Roskosmos space agency said it was ready to launch extra supply missions upon NASAs request, according toReuters.
Orbital Sciences holds a $1.9 billion contractwith NASA for resupplying the space station for at least eight launches through 2016. U.S. spaceflight firm SpaceXfounded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Muskholds a separate resupply contract with NASA worth $1.6 billion. But the space station can also receive supplies from a host of space agency spacecraft such as Russias Progress cargo ship andJapans H-2 Transfer Vehicle, according toSPACE.com. (The European Space Agency wrapped up its fifth and final resupply mission for the space station with its Automated Transfer Vehicles in August of this year.)
An ongoing investigation of the disaster by Orbital Sciences has focused on the evident failure in the Antares rocketsfirst stage enginesAJ26 engines first developed by the Soviet Union for its failed N-1 moon rocket program in the 1960s and 1970s. Aerojet-Rocketdyne bought and refurbished many of the Russian rocket engines before contracting to sell20 of theenginesto Orbital Sciences, according to theLos Angeles Times. The newspaper reports that Orbital Sciences had already been planning to retire the problematic rocket engines prior to the recent launch failure.
The latest disaster comes at an awkward time for Orbital Sciences in addition to driving the companys stock price downward. Orbital is in the midst of merging with Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK)an aerospace company that built the solid rocket motors for NASAs space shuttleto form a new company focused on space rockets and military hardware. But the Wall Street Journal reports thatboth Orbital and outside analysts dont expect the rocket accident to dramatically affect the merger.
Still, Orbital Sciences wont be launching more resupply missions for the space station anytime soon. That may give the edge to Musks SpaceX in terms of future contract awards from NASA if there is a protracted accident investigation, saidChris Quilty, an analyst at Raymond James, in a research note cited byBusinessweek. SpaceX also recently won an additional $2.6 billion contractto build and test its Dragon 2 spacecraft for carrying U.S. astronauts to the space station.
NASA will also have to manage space station operations with just one commercial resupply partner in the short term, if not longer. The U.S. space agency is focusedon developing itsheavy rocket systemfor taking astronauts beyond Earth orbit while leaving the standard space station resupply missions to private contractors.
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Orbital's Rocket Disaster Narrows Space Station Resupply Options