An Alliant Techsystems Ares V rocket. Image: ATK.
While it may be globally renowned for its success in the field of space exploration, NASA last week suffered a $19 million dollar USD loss to its ongoing program after being forced to perform an emergency abort during an unmanned rocket launch.
Set to deploy two NASA hypersonic experiments this past Friday, the Alliant Techsystems suborbital rocket blasted clear of its launch pad at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia before then veering off course.
According to an official NASA release detailing the incident, range safety officials made the decision to remotely detonate the rocket shortly after launch in order to prevent it from posing any potential danger to people or property.
NASA reports that most of the rocket debris “is thought to have fallen in the Atlantic Ocean,” although it notes there have been conflicting claims of debris also being sighted on land.
NASA warns against touching any land-based debris that may be discovered, as it “could be hazardous.” Instead, the space administration is urging people to report their finds to the Wallops Emergency Operations Center by calling: 757-824-1300.
With regard to the actual flight failure, NASA’s release outlines that the administration is “very disappointed.”
While a full investigation into the aborted mission is already being processed by Alliant Techsystems and supported by NASA, the administration has thus-far only said an “unknown” anomaly caused the rocket to fail some 27 seconds along its planned trajectory following take off.
At this time, however, NASA maintains that its focus is very much on protecting public safety via a dispatched response team, which it confirms is currently in the field.
Peter TimminsAug 25th, 2008 - 13:50:49
It's disheartening to see NASA have another tax payer funded failure. While launching rockets is an inherently dangerous activity, it is hard to understand how this kind of thing can happen given the technical and financial power at NASA's disposal. At least when SpaceX or some other private space company has a spectacular failure, they do with their money and not mine.
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