Late last month Orbital Science’s ORB-3 rocket failed spectacularly, exploding only seconds after leaving the launch pad. While a full review of what cause the launch disaster is still underway, close-up video of the event has been release. Needless to say it’s nothing short of astonishing.
Although Orbital Science is still sifting through the causes of the calamity it won’t stop the company from delivering on its commitment to ferry cargo to the ISS for NASA.
“While the Antares failure was very disappointing to all of us, the company is already implementing a contingency plan to overcome this setback. We intend to move forward safely but also expeditiously to put our CRS cargo program back on track and to accelerate the introduction of our upgraded Antares rocket,” said Mr. David W. Thompson, CEO of Orbital Sciences.
However, unlike their last launch which used a Russian built Antares rocket, Orbital will probably choose a more reliable vehicle. Most likely that new rocket will be SpaceX’s Falcon9 which is already shuttling shipments off-world.
In most industries having to lean on a competitor to deliver a core technology and service might be an undue and ruinous choice, however, in the burgeoning field of commercial space launches, cooperation might be the key to success.
Source: AmericaSpace