Unmanned NASA-contracted rocket explodes; damage is 'significant'

By Greg Botelho and Dave Alsup, CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/28/us/nasa-rocket-explodes/index.html#
(CNN) -- An unmanned NASA-contracted rocket exploded early Tuesday evening along the eastern Virginia coast, causing a huge fireball but no apparent deaths.

According to NASA, the Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft were set to launch at 6:22 p.m. ET from the Wallops Flight Facility along the Atlantic Ocean. It was set to carry some 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.

"There was failure on launch," NASA spokesman Jay Bolden said. "There was no indicated loss of life."

Bolden added, "There was significant property and vehicle damage. Mission control is trying to assess what went wrong."

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Raw video of unmanned rocket explosion

Video shows the rocket rising into the air for a few seconds before an explosion. It then plummets back to Earth, causing more flames as it hits the ground. NASA tweeted that the failure occurred six seconds after launch.

The launch had been scheduled for Monday, but that was scrubbed "because of a boat down range in the trajectory Antares would have flown had it lifted off," according to NASA.

Did you witness the rock explosion? Please share your images

Just before Tuesday's liftoff, the space agency reported "100% favorable" weather and "no technical concerns with the rocket or spacecraft being worked."

About one-third of the spacecraft's cargo consisted of material for scientific investigations, including a Houston school's experiment on pea growth and a study on blood flow in space.