SAN ANTONIO - Students at Hobby Middle School watched the explosion of a rocket bound for the International Space Station carrying their science project on Tuesday afternoon.
The students gathered at the Northwest Side campus to watch the unmanned Antares rocket, launched by NASA, which exploded shortly after lifting off from a Wallops Island, Virginia, launch pad.
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s rocket, which was to have launched Monday but was scrubbed after a sailboat entered a restricted area, ignited shortly before 5:30 p.m.
The students at the San Antonio school beat out others across the nation to get the experiment on board the craft, and the school's principal, Lawrence Carranco, described them as 'resilient,' even asking about doing another again despite seeing their experiment destroyed in the explosion.
More than a dozen schools across the country competed in the same program and had projects on the rocket.
The rocket lifted off the pad and then appeared to careen off course before exploding. Flames could be seen shooting into the sky as the sun set.
The rocket was unmanned, and NASA officials said no personnel appeared to be in danger.
However, there was 'significant' property damage.'Maintain your consoles,' Orbital Sciences' Mission Control informed the roomful of engineers and technicians. All data were being collected for use in the ensuing investigation.The Cygnus cargo ship was loaded with 5,000 pounds of gear for the six people living on the space station. It was the fourth Cygnus bound for the orbiting lab; the first flew just over a year ago.Scientific experiments were to be conducted by an unmanned, automated spacecraft called Cygnus, which was to fly alone in orbit several days before a set of thruster burns pushed it toward the space station.NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore were to use a robotic arm aboard the station to capture Cygnus and bring aboard crew provisions, research hardware, emergency equipment, spacewalk supplies and packing materials.Cygnus was to have remained docked to the space station for a month.NASA didn't immediately say how the accident would impact the astronaut aboard the space station.
NASA spokesman Rob Navias said there was nothing urgently needed by the space station crew on that flight. In fact, the Russian Space Agency was proceeding with its own supply run on Wednesday.
NASA is paying the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences and the California-based SpaceX company to keep the space station stocked in the post-shuttle era.
Until Tuesday, all of the companies' missions had been near-flawless and the accident was sure to draw criticism in Washington. The commercial spaceflight program has been championed by President Barack Obama.
NASA said the six residents of the orbiting lab were informed of the accident.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.schristenson@express-news.netfvaraorta@express-news.net Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 7 1 Name: Cygnus Count: 5 2 Name: SAN ANTONIO Count: 2 3 Name: Orbital Sciences Corp. Count: 1 4 Name: Wallops Island Count: 1 5 Name: Orbital Sciences ' Mission Control Count: 1 6 Name: Barry Wilmore Count: 1 7 Name: Washington Count: 1 8 Name: Virginia Count: 1 9 Name: Russian Space Agency Count: 1 10 Name: Orbital Sciences Count: 1 11 Name: Northwest Side Count: 1 12 Name: Barack Obama Count: 1 13 Name: Hobby Middle School Count: 1 14 Name: SpaceX Count: 1 15 Name: Lawrence Carranco Count: 1 16 Name: Reid Wiseman Count: 1 17 Name: Rob Navias Count: 1 18 Name: Associated Press Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1DYvJoc Title: Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch Pad Description: An Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded six seconds after its launch today. The cause of the launch failure is still being determined. It does not appear that anybody was injured by the accident. The Antares rocket was to carry a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station, loaded with cargo and supplies for the crew.
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