NASA Vows to Continue Commercial Rockets After Explosion

Dhaka, Oct 29 (NsNewswire) –The U.S. vowed to continue its commercial space launch program just hours after a rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded over a Virginia launch pad.

The unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp. (ORB:US) rocket burst into an orange fireball yesterday above the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s eastern shore. Orbital is leading an investigation into the cause of what NASA described as a “catastrophic anomaly.”

The explosion, which caused no injuries, is a setback for the approach to space cargo flights taken by the U.S. since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011. The agency now relies on Orbital and closely held SpaceX to ferry supplies to the space station, and the Russians to carry U.S. astronauts there.

ze “disappointed” that Orbital’s attempt at a third mission to resupply the shuttle failed, “we will continue to move forward toward the next attempt once we fully understand today’s mishap,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, a NASA associate administrator, in a statement yesterday.

The explosion “will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station.”

The failure of the Antares rocket won’t cause the space station crew to run out of food or other supplies, he said.

Source:Bloomberg News.