On this day in 2014: Antares rocket catastrophically exploded after liftoff, destroying Cygnus spacecraft

On October 28, 2014, Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It was carrying a Cygnus spacecraft loaded with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station. NASA’s Independent Review Team found the immediate cause was an explosion in the liquid oxygen turbopump of one of the rocket’s two AJ26 first-stage engines. It could not pin down a single root cause and named three possibilities: inadequate design robustness, foreign object debris, and a manufacturing defect. The rocket and its cargo were destroyed, and the launch pad was damaged. 12 years later, the accident remains a key lesson in rocket-engine reliability and testing. Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Stuart A. Snodgrass (HTSI), Pat Kennedy (HTSI),  Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.), Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.), Swarupa Nune (Vantage)