Witnesses Rattled After Unmanned Rocket Explosion Near Md. Line
Alex DeMetrick
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Famous Women Who Underwent Double MastectomiesWALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (WJZ)–The smallest of the nation’s rocket facilities, Wallops Island, still draws a crowd for a launch. And Tuesday night was not an exception.
Alex DeMetrick has more on what it was like for people who witnessed the explosion.
For many it felt like everything was going fine until suddenly it wasn’t.
YouTube video caught the crowd’s countdown.
But very little went as planned after, as the commercially built Antares Rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station, fell back to Earth.
The sound of the blast rolled for miles.
NASA’s Wallop’s Island is less than nine miles from the Maryland State line.
Campers in Chincoteague, Virginia were visibly shaken.
“I was actually scared, and I told everybody maybe we could get back into the car and leave. It was scary,” said Alicia Reed, camper.
“Glass in the campers, you could hear them shaking and vibrating. Could feel the vibration and it was extremely loud,” said Suzanne Kinet, camper.
A blast triggered by thousands of pounds of rocket fuel, hurling debris from an immense fireball.
Those closest were advised to say in their consoles.
And from the air, a private plane got more of a view than expected.
It was like dusk turning back to dawn.
“All of a sudden you see a big explosion and it looked as bright as the sun,” Reed said.
Empty beaches and plenty of distance from the launch pad, kept everyone safe. But as the fire burned, people were pushed further back as a precaution.
Bits of debris from the rocket did carry for miles, some landing on the beach in Chincoteague.
But, again, no one was hurt.
Even though the payload of supplies for the space station were lost, NASA says there is enough in reserve to last the crew until spring.
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