Antares/Cygnus Explosion 28 Oct 2014
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I was at the Orbital Science's attempted launch of the Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus resupply module, destined for the ISS. This was their third such mission, and I have see all of them. My wife and ten year old daughter (and future astronaut) were with me at the NASA VIP viewing area at Wallops, Island, Virginia. This was their second launch viewing, and the first night launch for all of us. We were about two miles away from the pad, and were the closest people to the launch site.
Now, it is important to know that I am just a guy fascinated by all aspects of space flight and space exploration. I do not work for NASA or any other "space company". My day job is as a data analyst for a small defense contractor and I help make sure that navy ships get the maintenance they need. I am lucky to know several people that work for different agencies within NASA, and some of their contractors. I was able to score these VIP tickets because of them, and I am very thankful. We even took our daughter out of school early so we could make it to the launch. Fortunately I only live two hours away, so getting there is not too much of a problem.
These launches are always very nice. NASA gives pre-launch briefs which tell us about the vehicle, cargo, and most importantly, safety. Speaking of safety, this was the second attempt in two days to launch this rocket. The first attempt was scrubbed the day before (Monday, 27 October 2014) due to a sailboat that was in the hazard area (the area where the first stage drops into the ocean). The Range Safety Officer could not clear the range, so it had to be scrubbed. The briefing covered what we would do in the "highly unlikely" event that something bad happened. Specifically, we would return quickly and quietly to the buses that brought us out to the viewing area if something bad happened. Pretty simple. When we got on the bus, the first thing we did was "count off" so we would have an accurate count of everyone on the bus.
The launch countdown progressed normally, and everyone around was very excited. Many had cameras and binoculars. People like taking pictures of themselves by the countdown clock, and I did as well.
Here I am with my daughter 30 minutes before the launch. You can just barely see the rocket behind my daughter on the horizon.
As the last minute wound down, everyone started standing and cheering. The last few seconds were counted down by everyone there. T-0 and ignition at 6:22PM. The skies were getting dark as the sun was setting behind us and the bright flash of the ignition made the skies look even darker. The Antares is a slow launcher, so I knew to not expect a very fast rise. After just two or three seconds, the rocket was clear of the tower, but then I noticed that it looked like it was slowing down. I started saying "Something's wrong! Something's wrong!" as the rocket slowed to a stop and started descending. The fireball and plume got bigger and more confused. I could just barely see the rocket itself as it fell to the ground and immediately exploded. Three seconds after it exploded, the shock wave hit us. It was very, very loud and it really shook the place. Immediately the NASA escorts at the viewing area started yelling for us all to get back on the buses. My daughter started crying, and to be quite honest, I was pretty choked up too. When we got back on the bus we counted off again. We had everyone and were heading back to the parking lot in no time.
As we drove off, we could see the enormous fire growing around the launch pad. People were talking about what they had seen and speculating on what may have happened. One thing that really impressed me was that while I am just a guy interested in this stuff, there were a lot of other people on the bus that know A LOT more about space flight, rockets, Wallops Island, and countless other details about this area. It was very interesting hearing their ideas and thoughts.
Most impressive of all though, were the people offering to help my daughter get through all of this. We reminded her that almost certainly, no one should have been hurt since this was an unmanned mission (of course, we now know that was indeed the case and no one was hurt or killed). We talked to her about how hard space flight is, and how easy we make it look. We talked about how we use incidents like this to help us learn more about how to improve space flight. We even talked about the Launch Abort System used on rockets such as the Soyuz and soon the Orion. She was still pretty devastated, but I know that in another day or two she will be back to normal. She will never forget this, and neither will I.
I have been asked several times if I got any good photos. I know people are just interested in what happened. I did take a few pictures with my cell phone, so they aren't great and there are much better quality photos available online. Anyway, here are the pictures I took:
1. Ignition. So far, everything looks ok.
2. Liftoff. So far, still, everything looks ok.
3. When I realized that something was wrong, I put my camera down and stopped taking pictures. After it hit the ground and exploded, I finally remembered to take another picture. At the point in this picture, the rocket had already slammed back into the ground and exploded.
4. What can I say? Utter disappointment.
5. Total devastation.
Update 10/30/2014. Very honored that Dr. Phil Plait wrote a story on his blog about this post.
And Yet, We Continue Upward: Failure as a Step Closer to Space
Now, it is important to know that I am just a guy fascinated by all aspects of space flight and space exploration. I do not work for NASA or any other "space company". My day job is as a data analyst for a small defense contractor and I help make sure that navy ships get the maintenance they need. I am lucky to know several people that work for different agencies within NASA, and some of their contractors. I was able to score these VIP tickets because of them, and I am very thankful. We even took our daughter out of school early so we could make it to the launch. Fortunately I only live two hours away, so getting there is not too much of a problem.
These launches are always very nice. NASA gives pre-launch briefs which tell us about the vehicle, cargo, and most importantly, safety. Speaking of safety, this was the second attempt in two days to launch this rocket. The first attempt was scrubbed the day before (Monday, 27 October 2014) due to a sailboat that was in the hazard area (the area where the first stage drops into the ocean). The Range Safety Officer could not clear the range, so it had to be scrubbed. The briefing covered what we would do in the "highly unlikely" event that something bad happened. Specifically, we would return quickly and quietly to the buses that brought us out to the viewing area if something bad happened. Pretty simple. When we got on the bus, the first thing we did was "count off" so we would have an accurate count of everyone on the bus.
The launch countdown progressed normally, and everyone around was very excited. Many had cameras and binoculars. People like taking pictures of themselves by the countdown clock, and I did as well.
As the last minute wound down, everyone started standing and cheering. The last few seconds were counted down by everyone there. T-0 and ignition at 6:22PM. The skies were getting dark as the sun was setting behind us and the bright flash of the ignition made the skies look even darker. The Antares is a slow launcher, so I knew to not expect a very fast rise. After just two or three seconds, the rocket was clear of the tower, but then I noticed that it looked like it was slowing down. I started saying "Something's wrong! Something's wrong!" as the rocket slowed to a stop and started descending. The fireball and plume got bigger and more confused. I could just barely see the rocket itself as it fell to the ground and immediately exploded. Three seconds after it exploded, the shock wave hit us. It was very, very loud and it really shook the place. Immediately the NASA escorts at the viewing area started yelling for us all to get back on the buses. My daughter started crying, and to be quite honest, I was pretty choked up too. When we got back on the bus we counted off again. We had everyone and were heading back to the parking lot in no time.
As we drove off, we could see the enormous fire growing around the launch pad. People were talking about what they had seen and speculating on what may have happened. One thing that really impressed me was that while I am just a guy interested in this stuff, there were a lot of other people on the bus that know A LOT more about space flight, rockets, Wallops Island, and countless other details about this area. It was very interesting hearing their ideas and thoughts.
Most impressive of all though, were the people offering to help my daughter get through all of this. We reminded her that almost certainly, no one should have been hurt since this was an unmanned mission (of course, we now know that was indeed the case and no one was hurt or killed). We talked to her about how hard space flight is, and how easy we make it look. We talked about how we use incidents like this to help us learn more about how to improve space flight. We even talked about the Launch Abort System used on rockets such as the Soyuz and soon the Orion. She was still pretty devastated, but I know that in another day or two she will be back to normal. She will never forget this, and neither will I.
I have been asked several times if I got any good photos. I know people are just interested in what happened. I did take a few pictures with my cell phone, so they aren't great and there are much better quality photos available online. Anyway, here are the pictures I took:
Update 10/30/2014. Very honored that Dr. Phil Plait wrote a story on his blog about this post.
And Yet, We Continue Upward: Failure as a Step Closer to Space
