NASA's unmanned Antares rocket explodes on launch

[HerkFE]

High-res (3000 x 2000) NASA photo of the pad, and the damage/debris left behind:

I would have expected it to look much worse.

[JarheadBoom]

I would have expected it to look much worse.

I thought that myself. Hell, I expected the crater to be bigger (you can see it in the photo, to the left of the flame trench that points out to sea).

I'm sure there's a shit-ton of damage that we're just not seeing...

[Gravedigger]

Yeah, I honestly don't know about this launch, and haven't had time to read any of the reports. I was just describing the system and how it works in general.

From watching the vid, it could have been terminated or it could have been a failure. You wouldn't necessarily hear the termination command on this broadcast. It could have been internal to the crew (sort of like intercom in the cockpit vs. keying the mic). It's also possible there was no command said out loud, and the person just reacted to the telemetry.

Whatever happened, the crew knows, and I'm sure it will be public soon if it isn't already.

ETA: It could have also been both. There could have been an initial failure and explosion before the termination command was sent.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Gravedigger